a cure, A CURE!

Last week, a Canadian laboratory mapped out the genetic components and structure of type two diabetes. This debilitating and widespread condition is caused by a genetic defect causing insulin resistance; it is the fastest spreading type of diabetes and the CDC (center for disease control) are characterising the increase as an epidemic. Merely 5 years after scientists have finished mapping the human genome, a medical revolution is nearing. With this discovery and other experimental trials, such as an AIDS vaccine that is being tested on thousands of Africans, we are on the verge of seriously altering our way of life.

Medical breakthroughs and eradication of widespread diseases such as Cancer, AIDS, Tuberculosis and general heart disease, will have massively important consequences such as the considerable extension of lifespan.

In late eighteenth century France, England and Germany, the removal of flowing sewage in the streets by creating underground networks of pipelines greatly improved the general hygiene of the metropolitan populations. The British parliament could not hold session anymore because the scent from the Thames River was so overpowering and nauseating. It was said in the early nineteenth century, that Berlin could be smelled from 10 Km away. The improvement reduced the virulence and prevalence of infectious diseases (Plague notably) that had decimated European urban centers in the past centuries. Consequently, the life expectancy from the 1800s to the 1960s almost tripled in Western Europe and North America.

Without exaggerating, I believe we could expect a similar process by eliminating the diseases that plague this early 21st century. A dramatic increase in life spans, let's say from 80 to 130 would call for the rethinking of every infrastructure of the known world, may it be political, economic, social or even cultural. The reason why an American president must be 35 to hold office is because when this rule was instated, 35 was above middle-aged. New rules would be applied, despots would rule for decades upon decades, economic progress would have to be measured in a different way and social support programs would have to be readjusted.

Another consequence of hygiene and medical breakthroughs in renaissance and industrial Europe was the development of a strong middle class. Today, the possibility of working more years or spending more years in college represents the possibility of social mobility where there was formerly a very strict hierarchy. The working class could create a larger capitalist bourgeoisie but this in no turn guarantees a positive outcome for the lower classes and the ultimately poor. New legislation caused by these breakthroughs would assuredly keep the poor at their helpless level and increase the riches of the upper echelons. This is (unfortunately or not) how a capitalist economy works and a revolution in this field, as the French revolutionaries tried in the 1790s or the soviets tried in 1917, is foolish without much theoretical study and, more importantly, more practical application studies.

Perhaps I am presenting this in a futuristic or Orwellian perspective but we must be realistic, a medical revolution in today's world will overturn all our preconceived notions of society. In accordance with Maslow's pyramid of human needs, when our basic fears and preoccupations with health will be lessened or eradicated, society will move up and worry about less primal things. Who knows, maybe more people will realise that they are a spec in the timeline and that by working and limiting themselves to a dead-end job, they are simply waiting to pass into oblivion. Maybe the next, healthy generation will get involved with their increased free time.

(Pictured: Sewers - DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid strands)

End.