In 2019 there was an article published in the Journal Science about how the government was going to let the gain of function, ie, transfer a disease from one vector to another, resume. Well the tests were related to bird flu, it may have limited other viral diseases as well. Well written piece on dangers of messing with nature . Probably had no effect as we now know that they just did the research in places like China and the Ukraine with even less ability to control any negative effects. While I do not argue for or against any source of Covid 19, it does open up some questions. It also indicates a robust discussion on possible effects prior to the outbreak. https://www.science.org/content/art...iments-make-bird-flu-more-risky-poised-resume Given all the interest in bird flu, one of the selected studies, transfer between ferrets by coughing, seeks to select a viral strain that would be transmitted between mammals, and not be limited to birds. RePORT ⟩ RePORTER Like it not, we are approaching the time in the real world that was often described in the SHTF stories. A small lab in a undeveloped country modifying a very dangerous rare disease into a very effective world wide plague. The money and equipment needed is available thru "pick your selected terrorist group or rogue nation" and most PhD's in the viral research areas are capable of doing it. While doing it safely requires a complex stage 4 containment lab, a much simpler situation exists if you could care less about safety as your goals are in their very nature destructive.
42 years ago my interest was in Recombinant DNA Engingeering. I learned enough back then to switch to mechanical engineering. I knew I was dumb and reckless enough to really screw up the world. The subsequent career took me into many clean rooms over the years due in large part to my initial education endeavors and understanding of laboratory processes. I have had to sign hundreds of NDAs over the years including some for the US government. Believe me when I tell you that these are all brutal money hungry and souless people who work on genetic engineering. The decision to move to broadcast engineering was brought on by watching the brutality of my fellow man experiment on our fellow creatures in the most inhumane ways one can imagine. Did you know mice can scream? Let that sink in. I realize that much research has led to us as humans having better and longer lives but when you think about it, we survived long enough to get to the point of having enough knowledge to do research without the research. I fully believe our attempts at bettering ourselves is leading to the destruction of ourselves. Cancer rates are no better, and in fact with some cancers are much worse, but survival rates are a bit better. Mental health deficits are at an all time high. When I was a kid, only "old people" took regular prescriptions, now I know people in their twenties who take a handful of crap every day. Our attempts to thwart natural selection is slowly turning us into a pack of the slowest buffalo. Do I believe there is a cure for cancer? You're damn right I do. HIV/AIDS? Yep. Common cold? Highly likely. "Then why don't we have them to use Tempstar?" you may ask. Money. Drug stores are full of over the counter pills and potions to treat symptoms of all kinds of things. If we cure these things, the manufacturers make no money. If we cure cancer, we can't sell chemo for years and years. If we cure HIV, all of those meds to treat the symptoms never make a dime. Don't believe me, look around. Everything is to treat symptoms and not the underlying disease. Everything is about the flow of money, which goes right back to those brutal, money hungry, souless bastards in those labs. For those who believe, it amounts to tampering with Gods will. I believe we were given free will that allows us to do this to ourselves, even against the grand plan. The ultimate outcome can't be good.
I do believe in the next decade, certainly the next couple of decades, we are going to see gene therapy make miracles happen. We're close to making the leap, almost there, however I do wonder if these mega corporations will allow these new discoveries to happen due to greed. Thankfully, I don't think they would be able to keep these huge discoveries quiet, at least, that is what I tell myself. Yes, I'm probably naive... Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge to even have a basic understanding on 'Gain of Function' and its pros and cons but from our experience with Covid, which got released by accident from a lab studying this crap, I would hope we would understand the consequences and certainly the risk to the entire world. I would guess we do but because other nations research it then we must also or suffer the consequences which could be fatal to the nation. So, we are damn if we do and damn if we don't. In truth, this might be the catalyst of the death of mankind, seriously. One only needs to look to history to see how devastating the plagues were and consider what modern Covid did to us. Frankly, I believe we will discover in the coming years that Covid has cause serious permanent damage to all who had it; however, I think it could have been much worse and perhaps next time it will. I think it will.
In the 1940's we Humans had little to worry about, Cancer was RARE, Obesity was RARE, most illness were RARE, even Mental illness was not like we see today! People didn't just drop from a Heart Attack, nor did they suddenly snap and go on a rampage, NO, we didn't have any of that! Our Food was always sourced LOCALLY from known producers, and we didn't have any artificial chemicals or other additives, or colors in out food, how it came is how nature made it! Growing up in the early 70's through 80's I got to see the beginnings of attempts to deal with "Learning Disabilities" and thus was exposed to all sorts of non institutionalized mental issues, Autism being a fairly new illness we still do not have any real knowledge of. Back in my school days, I got placed in classrooms with all sorts of kids suffering these ailments, Downs Syndrome was the most common, and the most studied at that time, we had 6 kids with it! Meanwhile, the other issues were largely ignored, nobody knew anything about them, so those kids were left in the corners to suffer quietly ( Or not so quietly as it turned out) on their own! All that really had an effect on me growing up so close to it, and even today, I am VERY sensitive towards those who suffer any of these issues, especially the Downs! What changed? How did we get here? Why is all our food being fucked with? Why are we making medications for shit we don't need, and yet we cannot live with out them now! I remember the only serious medical issue being Diabetes, having to have special meds that were very time sensitive, and could only get it on demand and only in small amounts, usually about a month's worth, and it was super expensive if you didn't have health care with coverage! Remember back when a person had ONE carrier, you went into the field at the beginning, and retired 20, 30, 40 years later with a nice pension and everything was paid off, so you could buy a place in Palm Springs and live the good life, where did that dream go? Now we work several "Carriers" through out, usually having to work 30+ years to have any hope of a retirement or pension, and then what,....................Seen the price for a brand new Pickup these days,............... Holy shit batman, 100+K for a middle of the road 4X4 pickup that isn't the top of the line, or bottom shelf "Work Truck" holy shit, i'm giving my self a head ache just thinking about that! The most I ever payed for a pickup was a 2 year old 1993 Dodge Cummins Diesel 4X4 Loaded with all the goodies, paid $11,000 cash for it, no payments for this kid, CASH, and I still had to pay all the "Fees" which was close to another grand! Still have that Old Truck, 350k on the clock, needs a complete and total rebuild of everything, but she still runs well, and will likely last another 30+ years, cause I sure as hell cannot afford to replace it, and couldn't replace it with anything worth a damn if I could afford it! Rant Off!!
Good commentary on the film. Is it the future! The left would fit right in, with the exception of having a master class making the final decisions and not the computer. At least at first, but it might morph into the scenes examined in the movie. https://www.mit.edu/~glettler/resume/undergrad/hist285_THX-1138.pdf Are there pockets of normal life beyond the city? Movie left more questions than answers. Really not a hijacking of the thread, but a slight taste of what can develop if we start letting moral decisions that effect us all be made by some faceless all powerful committee. Then it uses propaganda in the media and control of the funding to make its goals supreme. Wait, I think we are near that effect in both the Covid 19 roll out and in Climate change hysteria and its rapid gain of control over reality. Good catch Broker.
I will argue this point. Just in my family tree there was stomach, liver, and bone cancer. Most went undiagnosed until it was too late. When I was growing up there was "Dix Hill", or the state mental institution in Morganton, NC and it was always full. People got help for mental illness and returned to society. Today they get a prescription. There were a lot of strokes back in the day too due to undiagnosed high blood pressure.
Yes, the problem is actually due to not have good statistics from those days and years past, at the very best it was all done on passing paper around. Computers allowed for better storing, collating and accessing data and the internet made it better to capture and disseminate it. Tie that into our methods of testing and procedures greatly improving... So, the question really is one that is hard to prove, "Were these illnesses as prevalent in the older days or have they indeed increased due to our own technology advances?" I mean, organic food is all the rage, but can we really feed the wood (8+ billion now) using only organic seed and growing methods? I dunno and I am too ignorant of agriculture to even make an educated guess. Good question for @Kamp Krap ... EDIT: One thing is certain, looking at the 1940's photos of American soldiers doing PT, you see a shocking difference between size, weight, muscle mass when comparing to our modern American soldiers doing the same.
Short and Simple answer is NO. The unsustainable global population cannot be fed using sustainable agricultural methods. There have been a lot of neutral 3 party studies done on that subject. All but a few concluded the most people that could be supported using sustainable farming methods is 4.5 to 5 billion people globally. At 11 Billion people which is not very far off........ Conventional Agriculture will not be able to sustain the world population. Several factors could alter that one way or the other. Two key factors are why we have the Civilization and Population that the world has now. The Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. They went hand in hand and mechanized and chemicalized agriculture. For a very long time we ran huge surpluses and those surpluses have been dwindling progressively since around 1985. LOL what I have long called the problem of Infinite Growth in a world of Finite Resources. A lot of evidence suggest that people were healthier and better quality of lives pre 1970s but a shorter lifespan than now. People now are considerably less healthy and have longer lives thanks to modern medicine. The less healthy and lower quality of life is also a two factor collaboration that is directly linked to Modern Food and Sedentary Lifestyles. Want evidence LOL look at beach pictures from the 1930s through 1970s and Beach Pictures now. Old pics show generally fit and healthy people. Modern Pics looks like a bunch of beached whales overall. I mean come on you can't all the chemicals and crap that is in food now and be surprised that health and quality of life has declined. Throw in the sedentary factor and you got a bunch of FAT and Unhealthy people living longer and straining the healthcare system while living longer.
