Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] predicting the future

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Rick wrote:
> Which part?

I don't believe that if anyone truly discovers how to cure cancer that 
there will be any effort to keep the cure secret or diluted.  The people 
who do this research are by and large ethical people who have a genuine 
desire to cure cancer.  Furthermore the gains to be had by the person or 
company that discovers it will be so enourmous, both financially and 
professionally, that people won't even think about hiding it.  Even if 
some evil person in higher management decides to hide the cure, there is 
no way he or she can keep his or her employees quiet about it for 
anything more than a few months.

I believe that a big reason why cancer hasn't been cured is that it is 
not really one disease.  It is the internal workings of cells going 
wrong in any number of ways.  Thus even if you can cure one form of 
cancer, you are still going to have difficulties with other forms.

My guess is that it will be cured by nanorobots which will go through 
each cell of each person and check the DNA.  It will then kill off those 
cells that have disfunctional DNA.  This has to be many many decades 
away from being discovered.


> Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>
> > Rick wrote:
> >
> > > Mike Miller wrote:
> > >
> > > > Yes.  How long until we can create robots that look and act 
> > > > indistinguishable from people?  It won't be happening in the 2020s.
> > > Are you defining a robot as a mechanical person constructed of metal 
> > > & plastic or a person "constructed" by altering the genetic 
> > > structure. If you'll recall, the only way to tell the difference in 
> > > the movie was studying behavior patterns and responses. The 
> > > replicants were machines because they had been engineered, not 
> > > because they were made from spare VW parts.
> > >
> > > > History shows that the flying car is always farther off than you 
> > > > think it is.
> > >
> > > http://www.moller.com/skycar/
> > >
> > > Looks like the car itself is here...now for the hard part, government 
> > > regulation.
> > >
> > > > I don't agree.  As soon as someone discovers a cure for cancer, he 
> > > > will start to use it to make money - tons of it.  If he hesitates, 
> > > > someone else will make the discovery and revenues from treatment 
> > > > patents will dry up.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > If it were that simple to "make the discovery", someone would have 
> > > done it already. You are, of course, free to disagree with my 
> > > cynicism, but if you think the forces that control our society want 
> > > everyone to be cured of everything with a single shiny pill, then I 
> > > would have to be very shocked at your naiveté's.
> > >
> > > It's sizably more profitable to construct a self-renewing revenue 
> > > stream than to charge even exorbitant one time prices. I have not one 
> > > single doubt that if an R&D scientist at Big Time Pharmaceutical Co. 
> > > discovered a cure for cancer, they're very next major project would 
> > > be how to dilute it down so it merely stemmed the progression of the 
> > > cancer.
> >
> >
> > I simply don't believe this in any way whatsoever.


--

Stephen Montgomery-Smith
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen

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