By Charles Sabillon
For centuries people have fantasized about uncovering the fountain of immortality or the fountain of youth or they have imagined finding a hidden world where nobody ever falls sick. Such thoughts have found their utmost expression in the world of literature and are seen by everybody as utopian.
The truth is that a world in which diseases no longer exist is easily within reach. During 99% of the 100,000 years of human history, life expectancy was extremely low, being of less than twenty years. For millennia it seemed as if it was impossible for society to live without the scourge of epidemics. Although it seemed as unachievable, the fact is that today, such horrors are a thing of the past and nobody, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, still has to confront terrible epidemics.
Today, developed countries have managed to more than quadruple average life expectancy, making it to eighty and even least developed nations, such as those of South Asia, have made it to sixty. It is beyond a doubt that all that has been the result of science and technology.
However, what is most impressive is the fact that practically all of those progresses were achieved in the last two centuries. Just in the twentieth century there were more discoveries than in all of the preceding history of humanity.
What those historical facts reveal is that the rate of technological development is not fixed. Over the last five hundred years, it has been persistently accelerating and the increments have been of an exponential nature.
Something else that is also revealed by history is that science is omnipotent. Science can do anything. There is no dream that is too fantastic for science. It can transform anything into reality. From being one of the weakest creatures when our specie was born, we can now easily overpower the largest beasts on this planet. Most impressive still is that we can even defeat bacteria and viruses, which are the most formidable opponents in the animal kingdom. From being able to just travel slowly by land, we can now run faster than any quadruped, navigate in water better than any fish, and fly faster than any bird.
Although the rate of technological development has been exponentially accelerating in the last centuries, it has not gone fast enough. Today, millions of people, even in the most developed countries, continue to die at a young age because of numerous diseases that cannot be cured. People in rich countries have the money to finance a treatment, but the problem is that the there is no treatment for it has not been invented.
We need to accelerate the pace of discoveries, in particular in the medical field, because the people afflicted by incurable diseases cannot wait a hundred years. Since history shows that every problem and every disease can be overcome with science, it is clear that there is a technology capable of eradicating cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, mental illnesses, Parkinson’s, Alzheimers, and many others.
That technology in a way already exists, but it is located somewhere in the future. It will eventually appear, but it could take many decades or even centuries and none of those living today has the luxury of waiting that long.
The history of science shows that there are two types of variables that affect the rate of discovery.
The first is the blocking type, which hinders the development of inventions. There are several factors that hinder its advancement, but by far the worst is religion. The different religions of the world have at all moments in time opposed the progress of science. That is inevitable considering that they are the quintessence of irrationality and science is the quintessence of rationality.
The second variable is the stimulating type, which promotes the development of inventions. There are several aspects affecting this type of variable. The first and most important is a simple formula: The larger the flow of capital into science, the more numerous the discoveries. That is the unequivocal message from history.
If worldwide, the amount of capital going into research and development were to double, the rate of discovery would accelerate by 100%. If it were to treble, discoveries that would have appeared in three decades would appear in just ten years. Channeling three times more money into research and development would be extremely easy because at present not even 1% of the world economy flows into laboratories.
Therefore, the best way in which an individual can harness the limited resources it possesses in a way that will most benefit him or her, is to donate money to particular scientific foundations.
If in the family of a person there is a history of breast cancer, then that woman should give as much of her money to cancer research institutions. If there is a history of heart disease, then that man should donate a large share of his income to the scientific organizations trying to uncover the causality of that malady. People should not wait until an oncologist or a cardiologist gives them the bad news. Such a policy should start as soon as a person gets his or her first paycheck in life. That is actually a better health insurance policy than the traditional one because it improves the chances of finding a real solution to the core problem.
Many people tend to become active in some particular field of medicine at some moment in their life, but it usually happens only after having been diagnosed with an incurable disease or when a family member has been struck by malady. Unfortunately, by then it is usually too late. Research and development is the most expensive thing in this world and it requires humongous amounts of money to deliver results. It also needs time, in particular when only puny amounts of money are being allocated to it.
Human beings have the nasty habit of wasting their money in useless causes and the most useless of all is religion. However, there are numerous others and entertainment is one of them. People must never forget that when they are sick or dead, entertainment of any kind is no longer possible.
We must learn to set our priorities and the priority is staying alive and living without pain. Everything else is secondary.
We must also learn to put our trust in science and only on that. You cannot serve two gods and the god of science demands your full attention, your full devotion, and most of your resources.
Charles Sabillon did High School in Texas and has undergraduate degrees in Philosophy, Economics and Law as well as a masters and a doctorate in International Relations. After the PhD, he undertook post-doctoral research in the fields of History, Economics, and Ecology. He has taught Economic History at a university in Switzerland and speaks fluently English, Spanish, French and German.
For more information go to: http://www.authorsden.com/charlesasabillon, http://www.geocities.com/sabilloncarlos/
Labels: diseases, epidemics, Health Problems
