Absolutely terrible. As human beings, we should be prioritizing solving these kinds of problems. I don't think we need to live forever, but a graceful ending later in life remains an objective we haven't fully realized for everyone.
Absolutely terrible. As human beings, we should be prioritizing solving these kinds of problems. I don't think we need to live forever, but a graceful ending later in life remains an objective we haven't fully realized for everyone.
We do. There’s something like half a billion dollars spent on pancreatic cancer research annually in the United States alone. It’s a giant money pit and that’s created an enormous body of research, increased understanding of the biology of the cancer and just how insidious it is, and funded the careers of thousands of scientists, technicians, academics and administrators, but very little of all this translates into better treatment outcomes. There’s no evidence than just pouring more money into cancer research is going to give us a miracle cure. There are competing priorities starved for funding to that we know can use meaningful help. Not incidentally some of those include financial aid, medical care and quality of life assistance for the actual patients and their families, as well as prevention.
> There’s no evidence than just pouring more money into cancer research is going to give us a miracle cure.
The HPV vaccine will almost entirely wipe out cervical cancer: not by curing it, but preventing it entirely. Not sure if that meets your “miracle” standard, but it’s a totally unreasonable standard to apply to scientific research. By definition, a miracle is something that is not physically possible.
Research seems expensive, yes. You have to work in every possible direction, fumbling in the dark metaphorically, because you don’t know the answers yet. It’s a lot messier than giving a hungry person a meal. But hundreds of years of research have made that meal way more abundant and less expensive…
In the grand scope of the country, we spend quite small amounts on research. The U.S. GDP generates half a billion dollars in less than 10 minutes, for example. It’s less than what we spend on takeout coffee.
good point