[ExI] Sound of Silence

[Stefano Vaj]

On 14 October 2010 14:49, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
> While I agree that current treatments are primitive and crude, I think that the 'crawl' of our advances in medicine is only relative to what most people on this list can see as being possible.

Yes, part of it has to do with expectations. But expectations have
also been raised in some of us by being born at the end of an era
where scientific breakthroughs and new magic-bullet solutions, after a
very long period of very limited advances, were coming out like
jumping-jacks a dime a-dozen (and, btw, this was perhaps true for
technoscience in general).

In barely a century, we had had the discovery or invention of
microscopes, pathogens, antibiotics, vitamins, vaccins, resuscitation,
anaesthesiology, genetics, transplants, hormons, radiology, cardio
drugs, transfusions, prophilaxy, biochemistry...

In the following forty years, important refinements and progresses
took place, but it would be difficult for me to identify any similar
paradigm shifts.

> It would be nice, though, not to have to rely on the Chinese to make all the advances that involve anything risky or potentially sue-able.

Indeed.

-- 
Stefano Vaj