Last weekend, Smoph & I went out to the movies and saw “Hysteria“. Aside from the social issues discussed in the movie directly, one of the things that struck me was the opening scenes in a Victorian-era hospital, where the young Dr. Granville argues with his superior over the need to use clean bandages on a wound. The older doctor dismisses this new fanged “germ theory” is rubbish, seeing no need to waste fresh supplies.
Medicine has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, although we still do procedures which will likely seem equally barbaric next century. Or sooner.
So, Dr. Splatters, put your thinking caps and surgical masks on, and imagine how we’ll be treating people in the future.
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Cloning technology will enable those with serious or degenerative diseases to grow a new body and have their consciousness transferred across giving them a new disease-free lease on life.
Of course, moneyed individuals quickly target the technology as a means to reverse the aging process and stay forever young.
In a world where money buys immortality, all remaininig vestiges of morality fall to the new universal credo – survival of the sneakiest.
The gap between the haves and have-nots grows. The wealthy start prepping back up bodies in case of unforeseen accident and thus begins the clone banks (run by the banking industry, who know how to milk money out of their customers).
This continues until a small group of disenchanted underclass conspire to break in to a clone bank and release the clones.
Thus the clone war begins. A war founded on wealth and argued as a universal right to life. One that ends with the collapse of the financial systems and the loss of power by those who were banking on their wealth.
With irony worthy of the drama, a new authority rises. This authority is a group of the have-nots that embraced their mortality, along with the philosophy that mortality adds meaning to life. As such, when the rest of the world was going to hell in a handbasket, this group never waivered in their moral beliefs. Thus making them the best hope for the future of mankind.
You seriously should pitch this as a cool post-apocolyptic movie to someone.
Tangent Alert. I hadn’t heard of the movie, but it made me think of a book I was given by a girlfriend before I got married; “Bonk” by Mary Roach. She meant it to be a bit cheeky, of course, and I was vaguely sort of embarrassed, but it’s not a silly or sexy book, it’s actually a really quite interesting read about the science of sex and highlights just how little we know about what our bodies do during sex, and how/why.
As to how we’ll be medically treating people in the future, I’ll need to think on that.
The science of sex is a much neglected one, because it tends to inspire laughter and derision. Sad though…
But there are interesting things. There’s a couple of anatomy researchers who think they have some evidence of a G-spot, some who have found prostate-like tissues around the urethra of some women who claim to ejaculate, etc. Try and get funding for the studies though…
Yeah, the book covered a lot of the history of sex research and how it was/is taboo, considered perverted, etc. It’s sad because it means there is still so much we don’t know.
I just hope I never need surgery from someone called ‘Dr Splatter’.
My dad’s oncologist was named Dr Death. Don’t you think he would have changed his name?
Doctor or not, I definitely would have changed it if that was my name!
There was a Dr Tooth in our town when I was growing up… but no, he was not a dentist!
Yeah, I knew a Dr Tooth too. Or at least his sons.
Erk. What a name to have in that position.
Mum’s dentist is Dr Blood
I hope they find cures for cancer. Better drugs, without the nasty side effects, to manage mental illness, especially bipolar and depression. Can’t think of anything else, brain doesn’t work properly (cure for that, too?).
It would be nice if they knew how the anti-depressants/anti-psychotics worked. They’re still mostly trying to figure that out, then maybe they could create better drugs…
I think there will be a lot more genetic testing for diseases and disorders before kids are even born and there will be more testing of embryos and fetuses for diseases and disabilities. Maybe some people will call it a form of eugenics, I don’t know. But if you could choose not to have a child with cystic fibrosis or Down syndrome, would you? It’s not something I’ve ever had to face and I don’t know what I would do but I think it will become much more common.
Most of the genetic diseases I am pretty sure can be tested for now, especially the multiple chromosome ones. Hopefully the testing will be less invasive and reduce the risk of miscarriage for women having trouble conceiving.
I think for a while at least, it will be the progression of technology that is already being developed, such as nanorobots and hijacked viruses & bacteria (as in DNA inserted into the bacteria cell etc) to treat specific areas in the body; further DNA research to figure out the switches or triggers for a genetic anomoly to actually become a condition to then know how to switch it back again; and more research on just how all the areas and systems of the body are inter-related – the more we know, the more we realise that we don’t know!
You know, things could move in the other direction.
Over the last century, how many drugs have come in to existence for ailments that didn’t have a name 100 years ago?
Particularly in areas where so much is poorly understood, such as depression or mental illnesses.
Could we be waking up in the morning to a regiment of assorted pills because we have become so dependant on pharmaceuticals?
Lobotomise the tradies….
*just saying*
For my part, if they can get gene therapy working, imagine what a different place the world would be. You could change the bone marrow of a kid with leukaemia, or change the one gene in a kid with cystic fibrosis.
What worries me is new testing appearing that purports to be able to detect gay children? I think that is technology doing the wrong thing. I wonder about this for transgender kids too, as there’s some studies showing brain development in line with the sex people identify as. But most of that is post-puberty, I would think, so hopefully not.
I hope they improve on the treatments for cancer. Less damaging radiotherapy and drugs that target cancer cells more effectively.
I forsee microbots and cameras that would be great for less invasive excisions and investigations.
What I really hope they can do is grow organs. That would make life incredibly awesome.
Not in the way they did on The Island though.
Yes! Hurry up on this one. My liver is in need of a replacement.
Why do you think I had 3 children…
Puts a new angle on “heir and spare”.
Your liver still has a few good years left in it – lets remedy that with a Splat Up.
As some of you have said, I too would like to see improvements in all cancer treatments, not just the cancers you usually hear about. If they can find a cure, even better. I agree also with better medication for depression etc as well.
If they could also find a way to cure spinal cord injuries so that people could walk again, that would be great too.