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In reply to the discussion: Damage control? He's 1 point above approval needed [View all]Cicada
(4,533 posts)It makes me sad when people are pessimistic. For your consideration think about recent big medical breakthroughs. Jimmy Carter had a brain tumor that I believe had previously killed every human with it in about four months. A new treatment which trained his immune cells to kill that cancer cured him. A researcher at Penn developed a similar treatment which cures the children who get it (only children because no one lived out of childhood) 83% of the time with one treatment. Many others are cured with additional treatments. A drug now stops cystic fibrosis in 90%. A gene editing technique is cutting sickle cell anemia. Melanoma is now curable. I bought my business from a lady in the final stages of melanoma. Today she would be cured instead of dead. George Church, a genius scientist, thinks he or someone elses can probably use genetic engineering to cure natural death. Really. A cancer researcher at UCLA in 1981, who lived next to me, mentioned in 1981 that he expected that unless the degradation of dna as cells replace themselves is due to cosmic rays instead of a built in life process. No death, no evolution, so that degradation is probably built into our genetic code. As long as they still have cable TV I am ok with not dying. My cancer researcher neighbor had calculated that if we cured natural death, now a real possibility, in LA back then we would live about 800 years. Murder, car crash etc. He howled with laughter that his calculation matched the life span mentioned in the Bible for methuselah. Electric cars will get super cheap to own and operate. Energy will get cheap. And dont even get me started about the implications of unlimited free energy if we can invent workable fusion power plants. Be happy!