qpmarl blog

I am now in San Antonio, Texas. Building a waterslide that is exactly like about 5 that I've already built in various locations around the country. It creates a bit of a sense of deja vu.

I'm sorry about the last few posts. I guess I was having a bit of a pessimistic spell. I'm better now. But I still don't think that technology is going to save the world. And I do like to play with cool new stuff.

Do an Amazon.com search (I'm implying that this is a book search) for just about anything (I searched for "Dirk Gently" - the books we are going to look at most likely have nothing to do with the search term). Now sort the results by price, highest to lowest and check out some of the titles. There are some pretty interresting ones. And some pretty high prices (these are professional books - for doctors and aerospace engineers and stuff).

Here's a good title from my search:

Biomaterials and Biodegradable Polymers and Macromolecules: Current Research and Industrial Applications (European Materials Research Society Symposia Proceedings) by by F. Burny, A. Steinbûchel

it's only $397.95 The most expensive was Seas at the Millenium by C. Sheppard at $940.00

It's hard to imagine paying that much for a single book. But the people who do buy them probably have bookshelves full of them.

The more advanced our technology becomes, the more dependent we become until we cannot survive without it.

This is what bothers me.

Oh yeah, the question mark after the Bubonic plague in the previous post is because I was not sure that there is a cure for it. It seems to come and go on its own. We now know how it is spread and can control this somewhat. We can treat it with antibiotics, but this does not always work and it must be treated quickly (as soon as symptoms appear).

Yes, technology can help prevent and cure disease. But there will always be diseases and death. I don't think that technology will ever entirely defeat disease. And I do not believe that it is possible to entirely prevent death.

Furthermore, though we have defeated many major diseases such as Polio (and Bubonic Plague?), I don't think that people are generally any healthier than in the past - except for specific times and places such as London after the Industrial Revolution where there are major specific causes of health problems (pollution, etc).

Certain health conditions are more of a problem now than even in recent history. Cancer and Heart disease for example.

There is no technology that can heal the human body. The body must heal itself, technology is only able to push it along a bit and provide the proper conditions for healing.

The medical industry today, controlled by a capitalist society, is focused on selling pills and treatments, not on curing or eliminating diseases. It is all business. In the extreme case, psychological conditions are being invented along with pills to treat them with the apparent goal of getting everyone hooked on some prescription that will solve all of their problems. Why do anti-depressants increase suicide rates among teenagers? Isn't that kind-of the opposite of what anti-depressants are supposed to do.

I'm sorry, this is all rambling. I'll try to do some research, get some sources, etc. But right now, I'm working 10 hour days - 7 days/week, so I don't have much time.

I haven't been on for a while. I don't have much time now. But I have been reading you comments and have more to say on the subject. I will write a longer post soon.