10 - Work and Wealth

Corporate Influence

The last topic discussed in class, Work and Wealth, is extremely pertinent to the themes of the movie. We can see throughout the story that Bash is a very significant company and holds a large influence over society and government. When NASA is about to launch their first mission to blow the comet off course, Peter Isherwell, the CEO of Bash, convinces the president to call off the mission. His reasoning is that the comet contains at least $32 trillion worth of rare earth metals. These metals would allow Bash to take hold of the phone and computer industry away from China.

Robots and Automation

Another similarity that we see between the movie and the chapter is the subject of robots and automation. In both major flight launches in the movie, automated systems are used. Despite the fact that a pilot is on the rocket in the first, it is still automated; they only have a pilot so the government can have a "hero". The second launch is shown to have multiple rockets containing the BEADS that Bash planned to use to break up the comet.

Corporate Wealth

The subject of wealth is used throughout the story to show corporate greed when presented with decisions that impact the entire world. Bash and the government decide to pull back on the first launch mission to blow the comet off course when they learn that there is possibility of a large monetary gain from letting the comet reach the earth.

References

[1] Michael J. Quinn, Ethics for the Information Age, (Pearson, September 15 2020)