Barack Obama is in Moscow this week, holding talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and—perhaps more importantly—with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is regarded by many as still holding the crucial keys of power inside that nation’s opaque political structure. In any case, the leaders are discussing, among other things, nuclear disarmament. Between them, Russia and the United States possess more than 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. And so, any negotiations that can lower those numbers significantly can only be viewed as positive.
Looking back, we can see that great progress already has been made over the last 20 to 30 years in reducing the amount of potential nuclear destruction that these two nations hold. We still have a long way to go, but it seems obvious that the world is a less toxic place today that during the height of the Cold War, when nuclear arsenals were more than triple what they are today.
Now, let’s take a flight of fancy and imagine that you could be granted a Peace Bomb that would, when exploded, instantly and safely destroy all existing nuclear warheads and ICBMs. Would you choose to deploy that bomb? Do you believe the world would be better off with no nuclear weapons at all? Or does the concept of mutually assured destruction (M.A.D.) still have some merit?
As long as we’re imagining, what other kinds of magic bombs would you like to drop? How about a Literacy Bomb that would immediately give every person in the world over the age of four the ability to fluently read and write in his or her native language?
Another set of useful hypothetical bombs would be those aimed at restoring a healthy equilibrium in the natural environment. Say, for example, a Greenhouse Gas Bomb that would automatically reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 300 parts per million and keep it at that level, or a Rainforest Bomb that would immediately cause badly depleted rainforests in South America, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia to regenerate. Perhaps you’d favor a Species Diversity Bomb that protected and strengthened endangered species around the world.
Other possibilities could include a Health Bomb that would wipe out all forms of cancer, heart disease, and every other congenital, inherited, or infectious disease, or maybe even an Anti-Aging Bomb that would give every older person on Earth the physically healthy body of a 25 year-old and keep it that way (younger people would age naturally to 25 and stay there).
If you could, would you deploy an Empathy Bomb to make all of us care more deeply about each other? Or do you think we’d benefit more from an Intelligence Bomb that would immediately increase every person’s IQ by 25%?
What would you think of a Reason Bomb that would instantly remove our evolved tendency to believe in myths, fairy tales, religions, and superstitions? (I’m sure there are plenty of people, on the other hand, who would prefer to drop a Faith Bomb that would “cure” troublesome people like me of our atheism and make us all believers.)
Can you suggest other useful bombs that I have not described? And if only one of these powerfully transformative devices could be utilized, which do you think would be the most beneficial?
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