If one thing doesn’t get you, another will. Transhumanists have such hubris they actually believe they can become near immortal here in the physical world. But nature doesn’t want us to be immortal, it would lead to stagnant pools don’t you know. And now, a new anti-biotic bacteria in India proves the folly. From the Bloomberg story:
Drug resistance of all sorts is bringing the planet closer to what the World Health Organization calls a post-antibiotic era. “Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said at a March medical meeting in Copenhagen. “Hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy and care of preterm infants would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.”
Already, current varieties of resistant bacteria kill more than 25,000 people in Europe annually, the WHO said in March. The toll means at least 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in extra medical costs and productivity losses each year. “If this latest bug becomes entrenched in our hospitals, there is really nothing we can turn to,” says Donald E. Low, head of Ontario’s public health lab in Toronto. “Its potential is to be probably greater than any other organism.”
Hopefully, new antibiotics can be created. But the point is, nature will always eventually trump the mind of man.
But there’s always uploading into a computer mainframe, Wesley! Nope. Ever heard of computer viruses?
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.