Chapter 9: DEATH I hadn't realized that the subject of death was so fraught with lack of understanding. Certainly we know when something is dead, though through modern technology we can keep a person breathing and the body not decaying. But the chapter is not about defining death, but why do we die at all? By changing a gene, scientists have been able to extend markedly the lives of worms, fruit flies, and mice, for example. As the median age of people gradually extends, the ultimate age pretty much stays the same. There are an increasing number of centenarians, but very, very few live to 110, for example.
But I wonder for how long we want to extend a person's life in the first place. Scientists do so much to keep us alive, but, when we get old, we are told we cost too much. In my generation, the Depleted Generation of the Great Depression and WW-II have been rushed into retirement by our children, the Baby Boomers. Because there are so few of us,* we should be easy to take care of, but we have been skipped, and the politicians have jumped over us to the Baby Boomers.
Chapter 12: The Placebo Effect and Chapter 13: HOMEOPATHY I actually went to a well known homeopathic physician (an MD) for a couple of years. He would give me a small vial of small round sugar pills into which one drop of some disease was placed and then the vial shaken violently. when I quesdtioned his nurse about the drop being absorbed by the top sugar pills, she replied that the doctor says the "essence permeates." They didn't seem to do me any harm, and I probably didn't consume them after the beginning. If they had any value it was in a Placebo Effect (the subject of the previous chapter).
The most interesting story on the placebo effect was that some people were given a placebo buut told it was a medicine that would alleviate their problem Perhaps that the patients improved is not a surprise, but then, without telling the patients, they changed the sugar pills into a drug that counteracted the effect of the supposed drug that was to alleviate their problem and the patient gradually got worse again!
I have no doubt that a proper mental attitude can cure many ills. In fact isn't this the basis of Christian Science that "disease is an err of the mortal mind" that can be corrected by prayer?**
Prominently mentioned in this chapter is Rustum Roy,*** an India Indian, who would occasionally give talks at the Geophysical Laboratory that I would attend. I don't remember talking to him directly, however.
CONCLUSION This is a fascinating book and well worth reading in its entirety. The book is written for the laymen though those with no science aptitude may find it difficult at times.
* This Depleted Generation of 15 years has never had a president, for example. John Kerry was the last attempt. True Bernie Sanders is a member, having been born in 1942, but is he a real possibility for president? I doubt it.
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustum_Roy
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