Alchemist and barrister donation request movie#
Looking for a good movie and to kick start an ethics discussion with your coworkers, friends, and family? I frequently use the movie "Eye in the Sky" as a catalyst for military ethics discussions. The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler #ethics #ethicalleadership #ethicalai #responsibility
As Oppenheimer and the AI revolution spur a renewed interest in the ethical application of technology (one hopes), I highly recommend checking out The Alchemy of Air ( ) by Thomas Hager, which raises similar questions around the moral culpability of scientists and engineers. Hager tells the story of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, a chemist and a chemist/engineer who perfected a way to extract atmospheric nitrogen and convert it to ammonia – a process without which it is likely that global agricultural production would have been unable to keep up with a growing population. The Haber-Bosch process likely saved millions from starvation, but at the same time its use to produce nitrates for explosives and gunpowder also fueled the German war machine during World War I. Bosch directly oversaw the conversion and operation of BASF facilities to support munitions production (without which Germany, cut off from natural supplies of nitrates, might not have been able to sustain its war effort), with Haber’s enthusiastic support. Indeed, such was Haber’s nationalism that he went on to develop and oversee the initial use of chlorine gas by German forces in the trenches. Hager’s book asks us to grapple with the ultimate legacy of these men. Did they do more harm than good? Should they be revered or reviled? Or do the unpredictable repercussions of scientific discovery ultimately divorce the inventor from the legacy of the invention? Inquiring minds and the present generation of AI developers probably want to know….
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