It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with.
But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead.
It’s quite something to stop and think about how the problem is becoming less and less about “how do we do the science and the engineering?” And more about “how do we handle how this changes what it is like to be human today?”
We've figured that out, but certain members of society decided that extracting wealth through protectionist zoning/building code behavior is much, much more lucrative.
Military spending has actually decreased a lot as a % of GDP in the US over time, so old narratives about this have become less true. So the anti-military-spending orgs have to abuse the numbers if they want to keep that narrative going:
Though, a reasonable person can still argue that the many billions we still spend on the military can be better used elsewhere. There’s no need to cook the numbers to make that point.
America spends a greater percentage of government money on healthcare than many systems with universal healthcare. Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Affairs and Military medical spending are about 7% of GDP. Add another 1-3% and you would be ahead of almost everyone.
And that would still be a savings of 7% of GDP.
Not providing universal healthcare is entirely a political cocktail of wasting the money, letting big corporations loot it with tactics like using many partial vials of medicine instead of a full vial, letting the medical professional groups stuff up the pipeline of medical practitioners, and electing members who did all of the above to Congress.
Eh, "figuring out how to deal with it" is the easy part. The hard part is first making it work, and then proving its effectiveness, scaling it and improving it.
Medical advancements in particular are notorious for having a hideously long lead time. This here is an experimental procedure that, if all goes well, will only start becoming commonplace by year 2035. It's not guaranteed to all go well.
You'd think there would be a massive push for new medical technologies that have the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and you'd be wrong. Healthcare is where innovation goes to die. Most companies that attempt to develop this kind of bleeding edge treatment crash and burn either before or shortly after seeing the first results. Just the cost of early testing of a new treatment option is enough to bankrupt many.
I think Alan Kay deserves the credit for the tablet. We have vague allusions to tablet like things before Kay but it was Kay who really came up with concept.
I had heart surgery 2 months ago to repair my mitral valve. In the lead-up to that, I had to make a decision what to do if it turned out replacement was needed instead of repair. Choices were metallic valves requiring me to be on warfarin the rest of my life or pig-derived valves. I chose the latter, mostly to avoid warfarin for life, but also because my surgeon was a PhD for work on creating biological-derived valves that didn’t trigger the immune system. Just mind-blowing what can be done. But I’m glad repair and not replacement worked out - and I now have GoreTex fibers attached to my valve.
> “how do we handle how this changes what it is like to be human today?”
Progress, invention, is part of being human, so this is natural and normal thing that these thing happen. You can stop, marvel, and then go improve upon your own niche.
Keep in mind the amazing thing is the survival of having the transplant in addition to kidney failure. People have been living up to five years without kidneys by relying on dialysis.
“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal.
It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with.
But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead.
It’s quite something to stop and think about how the problem is becoming less and less about “how do we do the science and the engineering?” And more about “how do we handle how this changes what it is like to be human today?”
Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.
Those things have been figured out, you're just choosing not to implement them (you generally, not you specifically).
We've figured that out, but certain members of society decided that extracting wealth through protectionist zoning/building code behavior is much, much more lucrative.
Provide with what money? Every major country is an ocean of debt
https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/fy-2023-fed-bu...
Defense is only 13% of federal spending: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder...
Military spending has actually decreased a lot as a % of GDP in the US over time, so old narratives about this have become less true. So the anti-military-spending orgs have to abuse the numbers if they want to keep that narrative going:
https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and...
Though, a reasonable person can still argue that the many billions we still spend on the military can be better used elsewhere. There’s no need to cook the numbers to make that point.
Actually tax the rich?
Taxing the land and removing zoning limits on it is the big hurdle.
And who is on the other side of that debt? And how did it get there?
America spends a greater percentage of government money on healthcare than many systems with universal healthcare. Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Affairs and Military medical spending are about 7% of GDP. Add another 1-3% and you would be ahead of almost everyone.
And that would still be a savings of 7% of GDP.
Not providing universal healthcare is entirely a political cocktail of wasting the money, letting big corporations loot it with tactics like using many partial vials of medicine instead of a full vial, letting the medical professional groups stuff up the pipeline of medical practitioners, and electing members who did all of the above to Congress.
Eh, "figuring out how to deal with it" is the easy part. The hard part is first making it work, and then proving its effectiveness, scaling it and improving it.
Medical advancements in particular are notorious for having a hideously long lead time. This here is an experimental procedure that, if all goes well, will only start becoming commonplace by year 2035. It's not guaranteed to all go well.
You'd think there would be a massive push for new medical technologies that have the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and you'd be wrong. Healthcare is where innovation goes to die. Most companies that attempt to develop this kind of bleeding edge treatment crash and burn either before or shortly after seeing the first results. Just the cost of early testing of a new treatment option is enough to bankrupt many.
I think Alan Kay deserves the credit for the tablet. We have vague allusions to tablet like things before Kay but it was Kay who really came up with concept.
fwiw, biological heart valves, as opposed to metallic valves, are already quite commonly used today.
biological ones are typically made from either cows, or pigs (bovine, porcine respectively).
but this is on another level altogether.
I had heart surgery 2 months ago to repair my mitral valve. In the lead-up to that, I had to make a decision what to do if it turned out replacement was needed instead of repair. Choices were metallic valves requiring me to be on warfarin the rest of my life or pig-derived valves. I chose the latter, mostly to avoid warfarin for life, but also because my surgeon was a PhD for work on creating biological-derived valves that didn’t trigger the immune system. Just mind-blowing what can be done. But I’m glad repair and not replacement worked out - and I now have GoreTex fibers attached to my valve.
GoreTex being the brand of a material that was put into your heart sure sounds amusing.
At heart, he's a GoreTex™ guy.
I'll just get my coat...
> I'll just get my coat
And what fabric is that coat made of?
Sheepskin (the “I’ll get my coat” reference is from The Register).
I’ll have to remember that one
a star trek edit where the tech is like what we've got would be depressing as fuck
> “how do we handle how this changes what it is like to be human today?”
Progress, invention, is part of being human, so this is natural and normal thing that these thing happen. You can stop, marvel, and then go improve upon your own niche.
Pig-human organ transplants make me think of The Onion series, Porkin' Across America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwQns6vGfj4&list=PL4NL9i-Fu1...
Keep in mind the amazing thing is the survival of having the transplant in addition to kidney failure. People have been living up to five years without kidneys by relying on dialysis.
Dialysis is hell.
I had a friend that chose to die, after several months on a home dialysis machine.
It would be interesting what the genetically modified pig looks like.
Exactly like a pig.
some say it looks like a small human boy
Porco Rosso