Filed under: Flu, General Musings, Health, MetaFilter, Pandemic, Plague, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, Society, Survival, tech, Violence, Writing stuff
. . . about human nature is summed up very nicely in one little comment I came across on MeFi, in a discussion about news of some potential life-extending medical breakthroughs. Here it is:
people dying isn’t a bad thing
(boggle)
Yes. Yes it is. If you don’t think so, you’re welcome to accept it with equanimity. I, on the other hand, would club little old ladies to be first in line for some biotech that would prolong a healthy lifespan.
[Mild spoilers ahead.]
Part of the crucial history of Communion of Dreams revolves around what people would do when they think they have been denied life-saving treatment during a pandemic. When I was thinking this through, I had to stop and wonder just how cynical I was going to be – there are, after all, plenty of instances of people making sacrifices to save others during a crisis. But I decided that given the timing of the pandemic (in our near future), and given how I was going to ‘set up’ that history, the likely response would be much uglier.
Sometimes I hate being right.
Jim Downey
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