The last decades medicine and technology are inextricably linked, as a result, today we are able to maintain, improve and develop physical and cognitive abilities of the human body. Possible to successfully transplant of all the vital organs except the brain, with their replacement by original or artificial analogs. While this does not give people immortality, but significantly prolongs the period of life.
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Many scientists already today predict that in 100 years you will be able to cyberneticize your body and forget about most of the diseases by correcting DNA code. And a cure for old age will become the absolute triumph of medicine.
But, can today every person on the planet afford to buy the latest model of favorite smartphone or car? Do we all buy the same quality clothes, food or medication, or can afford the best education? You know the answer...
Throughout the history of human existence, inequality and division into castes only intensifies, despite attempts to reduce the gulf between people using different political models. A great example is economic inequality: In 2009 1% of the global population owned 44% of all the world's wealth. In 2016 for the first time in the history, 1% of the population owned 50% of all the world's wealth. The total financial accumulation of the 62 richest people on the Forbes list is equal to the total capital of 3.5 billion of the poorest people. (Oxfam research)
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Such rapid growth of economic stratification is also associated with the development of technology. If before the elite was forced to take care about welfare of the lower classes, distributing the profit to maintain their efficiency and improve education, as the basis of production. Then today automation and robotics releases them (elite) from the need to create new jobs and to share the incomes.
Now, instead of 10 people at the factory you can use 1 robot and 1 engineer for its service. Costs of production fall, profits rise and distributed over a smaller number of employees. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
Medicine at all times has been and remains a very expensive type of services. Therefore, economic inequality will logically lead to biological inequality. Wealthy person will be able to use advanced and proven products, maintaining his health and extending life expectancy. At that time, the less well-off strata of the population will rather use cheaper analogues, or the black market.
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It may sound not so scary, but imagine the possible result: a wealthy man will surpass the poor not only in money, he will be stronger, faster, smarter and prettier on a biological level. And those, who are at the top of the financial pyramid will live 50 or 100 years longer than the average inhabitant of the planet. Now it sounds a little fantastic, isn't it? But we have a clear example…
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David Rockefeller- one of the most influential and richest people of the world died 20 March 2017 at the age of 101 years. He suffered 7 heart transplants, the first of which was held in 1976 at the age of 61 years. The seventh operation was carried out shortly before his death. Today, the cost of surgery for a heart transplant is at least $ 1 million, not counting the waiting time for a suitable organ in the queue of 122,000 other patients.
Can you afford at least one such operation? I think most of us can't. Theoretically, without owning so much money, Rockefeller would have lived for 40 years less.
Recently I published a short article about the cost of organs for transplantation on the legal and black market. You can estimate how much the price varies: Kidney $ 15.000 vs $ 262.000. The main danger of organs on the black market is that their compatibility with the recipient is determined only by blood group. This criterion is not enough to fully assess the risk of donor organ rejection.
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It is obvious that a similar situation may occur in the medicine of the future. The patient will have the choice, which depends on his wealth:
- Purchase a certified artificial body organ with a guarantee from the manufacturer and the most professional and safe transplantation, with subsequent insurance.
- Purchase a cheap version at your own risk with less lifetime and periodic " bugs" (for example, cheap liver will not allocate some of the important enzymes).
The same applies to the correction of the DNA code, or cosmetic surgical rejuvenation. Compare this with the appeal to the warranty service and to the garage workshop, where self-taught DNA-hacker makes no warranties and is not responsible for the final result.
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This concept was reflected a little rough, but very clearly in the movie "Elysium". Most likely our developed humanism will not allow such a clear separation between rich – healthy and poor-sick, in fact, everything will look a lot "neater". Biological inequality will not be a clear and acute problem, rather it will be something mundane and normal. The best models of organs and the maximum longevity will be positioned only as a luxury product, and not an obligatory benefit.
In the past generation, the main race of life was the pursuit of the distorted "American Dream" (own house, cars for all members of the family, the latest models of home appliances). Perhaps in two or three generations the main race of life will be the race for increasing the life span. But, it's just another theory about the future of humanity...
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