Sunday, March 25, 2018

How true is it that according to Ray Kurzweil, we are reaching a point where sickness & disease are all conquerable?


Are we 'reaching a point where sickness and disease are all conquerable’, apparently according to a 2005 book? A notion grounded in reality or one that exists in the fantasy landscape inhabited by those in positions of enormous wealth and influence? I'm particularly stuck by the yawning, obscene contrast between the techno-utopia implied by this question and manifest reality. Some absurd propositions just beg to be introduced violently to the reality on planet Earth.

The example of Remote Area Medical - Wikipedia (RAM) helps puncture the brazenly clueless notion that human sickness and disease are anywhere close to being 'conquered'. Started by Stan Brock (philanthropist) - Wikipedia in 1985, RAM provides a variety of healthcare services to needy people in remote parts of the world.

Needy people in remote parts. Maybe people in earthquake-hit parts of so-called Third World countries like Haiti? Rather, the bulk of RAM's services are provided in the US. Not remote parts of the US mind unless somehow places like Inglewood, CA, Seattle, WA, Knoxville and Memphis, both in TN, and Las Vegas, NV, (see examples below) are remote in which case the word's patently become meaningless.


So, in the year 2017, affordable healthcare is still so much out of reach for so many millions in the US that thousands of Americans wait for hours, even overnight, to get really free medical, dental and vision care at huge RAM clinics organized in enormous stadiums to accommodate the huge numbers in need (see below from remote area medical Archives - Insurance Thought Leadership and The Atlantic, Olga Khazan, January 22, 2015. Life in the Sickest Town in America).


If so many people in arguably the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world, in fact its sole current superpower, can't even access basic healthcare, how likely is it that we are even remotely close to a time when sickness and disease are all conquerable?

To conquer sickness and disease, shouldn't their diagnosis be a given in any and all circumstance in the first place, and if even that's not guaranteed in the US of all places, what chances it's universally available and affordable elsewhere? And of course, these are times when guarantee of life itself doesn't even exist in conflict-ridden places like Syria, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo and so many other places, a time when unprecedented numbers of people have recently joined the ranks of refugees. Let's park this techno-utopia where it truly belongs, in the realm of fantasy...unless we accept as reality the future depicted by sci-fi movies like Elysium (film) - Wikipedia.

Sources for further reading:
The Atlantic, Olga Khazan, January 22, 2015. Life in the Sickest Town in America


https://www.quora.com/How-true-is-it-that-according-to-Ray-Kurzweil-we-are-reaching-a-point-where-sickness-disease-are-all-conquerable/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala


No comments:

Post a Comment