Everybody talks about the weather
June 28, 2006
Recently, under the influence of an exceptionally rainy season, I began to wonder what would happen if we finally developed the technology to control the weather. I mean, what would the politics and economics be like? Would rich communities be able to buy good weather for themselves? Would agricultural workers have to live in constant rain if that’s what it takes for their crops to grow?
What if a Brazilian radical leader threatens world chaos by training a million butterflies to flap in unison?
Addictions
June 28, 2006
There was an article somewhere, in Nature or one of the newspaper science sections, about new work on addiction – apparently they’re a lot closer than they were to effective treatments that shut off the mechanisms in the brain that addict people to stuff.
Ethical questions – if there really were such a thing, could a court mandate such a treatment for drug offenders? Could parents or schools order their pre-teens treated? Suppose it could be done on a community-wide basis, like water fluoridation…
Do people have a right to be or become addicted? As distinct from addicts’ right to obtain their substance of choice?
What if a community treats its water supply with an anti-addictive drug and as a result everyone’s sex drive goes down the tubes? Or consumerism generally?
