Not-very-deep Thoughts
Mar. 11th, 2004 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI seem to have turned the corner, cold-wise last night. Oh, I'm still weak and I'm still struggling to breathe, but I'm not as horrible as I've been. I'm even going to be able to put in my first full day's work, although I'm going to miss dinner with my friends tonight.
However, as I struggle to clear out the lungs and sinuses, I keep thinking the same stupid thing:
Y'know how one of the marks of a B-grade Evil Alien Society is some dorky pronouncement like "We put our people to sleep when they get sick. It's more merciful that way, rather than letting them suffer."
Of course, you're supposed to be all horrified that they're so inhuman that the sniffles is a death sentance. But - doesn't it also stand to reason that if they eliminate anyone who ever gets sick, they're also on a fast track to eliminating their own race? Think about it. The way to strengthen an immune system isn't to shield it from everything. (Indeed, they're discovering that the last couple generations of Western kids are weaker because they're scrubbed up with antibacterial soap and haven't been exposed to pet dander, etc.)
So if you take someone out of the breeding stock the moment they get sick, then you are actively eliminating immune systems that can fight off a challenge. In the short run, you'll maybe end up with a very small bunch of people who don't get sick from the usual local diseases... but every single one of them will be helpless when exposed to something new.
Just ask the Martians from War of the Worlds.
(Okay, this is a totally dorky train of thought. You spend 4 days partially or mostly in bed with a vaporizor!)
However, as I struggle to clear out the lungs and sinuses, I keep thinking the same stupid thing:
Y'know how one of the marks of a B-grade Evil Alien Society is some dorky pronouncement like "We put our people to sleep when they get sick. It's more merciful that way, rather than letting them suffer."
Of course, you're supposed to be all horrified that they're so inhuman that the sniffles is a death sentance. But - doesn't it also stand to reason that if they eliminate anyone who ever gets sick, they're also on a fast track to eliminating their own race? Think about it. The way to strengthen an immune system isn't to shield it from everything. (Indeed, they're discovering that the last couple generations of Western kids are weaker because they're scrubbed up with antibacterial soap and haven't been exposed to pet dander, etc.)
So if you take someone out of the breeding stock the moment they get sick, then you are actively eliminating immune systems that can fight off a challenge. In the short run, you'll maybe end up with a very small bunch of people who don't get sick from the usual local diseases... but every single one of them will be helpless when exposed to something new.
Just ask the Martians from War of the Worlds.
(Okay, this is a totally dorky train of thought. You spend 4 days partially or mostly in bed with a vaporizor!)
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 12:58 pm (UTC)Salmonella isn't new, either. Food poisoning is something like 20 times more likely in humans now than 40 years ago. Mainly because we're being so careful about germs in the food that we can't handle even a few icky cells.
Glad you're feeling better, though.