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Lessons From the Low-Tech Defeat of the Guinea Worm

nytimes.com

1–7 of 7 posts

Re: Lessons From the Low-Tech Defeat of the Guinea Worm

#4
Yes, low tech things like properly washing hands can save lives, but what's even more important is public awareness and public disclosure: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/public_di...

"Rates of mortality from coronary artery bypass surgery varied widely among hospitals before the state began requiring public reporting of death rates from the procedure. Four years into mandatory reporting requirements, average hospital death rates from the operation fell by 41 percent."

Re: Lessons From the Low-Tech Defeat of the Guinea Worm

#6

This means that the Guinea Worm is now a very endangered species. Won't someone think of the worms?

Probably this is a not-very-empathizable example (thus the downvotes), but the principle is sound. Humans re-engineer the Earth to obey human morality. We think the wolf killing the sheep is wrong, so we put a fence between the wolf and the sheep. Now the wolves start starving to death, so we toss sheep steaks over the fence. It's a weird equilibrium. (Though possibly solved one day, for the most part, if we get vat-grown meat right.)

Re: Lessons From the Low-Tech Defeat of the Guinea Worm

#7
post #6

This means that the Guinea Worm is now a very endangered species. Won't someone think of the worms?

Probably this is a not-very-empathizable example (thus the downvotes), but the principle is sound. Humans re-engineer the Earth to obey human morality. We think the wolf killing the sheep is wrong, so we put a fence between the wolf and the sheep. Now the wolves start starving to death, so we toss sheep steaks over the fence. It's a weird equilibrium. (Though possibly solved one day, for the most part, if we get vat-…

I think probably that if we do vat-grown meat, the sheep all die without offspring, since we'd have no reason to breed them and they're not very good at surviving on their own.