The other day when I was watching the news they said that they had created an injection that has the potential to cure all strains of the flu.
The flu is a viral infection which although isn't normally deadly, can kill elderly people as well as young infant and babies who have weaker immune systems.
Thinking back to 50, 200 or even 500 years ago there definitely wasn't the kind of technology that we have now, and people were certainly not making the kind of medical discoveries that they are today.
There was no cure for the flu. There was no cure for leprosy. No cure for small pox, it had long yet to be eradicated. They have cures for venereal diseases. If you became ill, you fought the disease. If you couldn't fight the disease you inevitably died.
But now, all of us 1st world countries citizens and all of the 1st world doctors, are seeking and finding cures for all of these diseases.
And it is nice, not having to worry about contracting one of those diseases and not being able to receive treatment, but that is life.
We have no predators and we are, by ridding ourselves of the threat of these diseases, slowly eliminating all of our weaknesses.
We are eliminating natural selection.
How can we be so bold? So egotistical and selfish to think that we have the right to make ourselves invincible to nature?
Even time is becoming something which we have decided to try and conquer. Since the paleolithic era our life-expectancy has slowly increased bit by bit and scientists today are looking for new ways to regenerate organs and tissues in order to remove the damage from the wear and tear of time on our bodies.
Living to be 150 would be great i'm sure, but we have to look at the repercussions of living longer. Living longer and removing natural selection means that people who may have died from illness or disease, will now be alive and will be alive for longer. Therefore there will be more people on Earth, meaning more crowding, and a much higher demand for resources.
I'm not one to believe that we shouldn't try to change the way the world turned out to some extent, such as trying to transform all of the 2nd and 3rd world countries into 1st world countries. Or even by finding better treatments for diseases, for cancer, and increasing AIDS prevention. But curing the flu? curing every disease? and changing the way nature intended us to be? not so much.
I think that the 'god complex' style train of thought that a lot of humans are taking on is going to end up putting us in a lot of trouble, whether it be now or in several years time. There's a reason we weren't given those kind of powers in the first place.
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