Malcolm Gladwell is the author of revolutionary books such as The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, which rank among the best and most influential non-fiction books of the past decade. In this TED talk he turns his attention to the story of a devout Christian who engineered a solution to one of the most complex physics problems of the 1940’s: how to drop bombs more accurately.

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Discussion Questions:

• Why was the Norden Bombsight one of the most precious objects of the era?
• Gladwell says: “And for Norden as well, this device had incredible moral importance because Norden was a committed Christian. In fact, he would always get upset when people referred to the bombsight as his invention because in his eyes only God could invent things. He was simply the instrument of God’s will. And what was God’s will? Well, God’s will was that the amount of suffering in any kind of war be reduced to as small an amount as possible.” Can God inspire the creation of a weapon of mass destruction?
• This talk raises questions about the ethics of science and technology. Are there lines which scientists should not cross? What do we potentially sacrifice by setting these boundaries?

 

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