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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2617419 No.2617419 [Reply] [Original]

Dear /sci/,

Why is it that your field of expertise can treat diseases and disorders that the public begs you to cure (Cancer, AIDS, Autism to name a few), but can never seem to actually cure them?

I'm an outsider to all this, but shouldn't it be in 21st Century Medicine's capacity to accomplish this?

>> No.2617443

>>2617419
doctors make more money if they charge you $5k a year for meds for the rest of your life rather than 10k upfront to actually cure it in one go.

>> No.2617441
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2617441

>>2617419
> I'm an outsider to all this, but shouldn't it be in 21st Century Medicine's capacity to accomplish this?
Shit's complicated. Be glad we even have treatments. But we're making progress, slowly but surely.

Oh, and we'll never cure cancer, pic related.

>> No.2617447

> Shit's complicated. Be glad we even have treatments. But we're making progress, slowly but surely.

> Slowly

I hate america. There's no reason for it to be slow aside from a certain economical system that is no more useful to our current needs.

>> No.2617450

>>2617443
This, but substitute big pharma for doctors.

>> No.2617451

>>2617443
I'm so fucking tired of this conspiracy theory bullshit. It's massively ignorant of what the field is really like, and is a huge slap in the face to those who dedicate their lives to researching and curing disease.

Even IF pharmaceutical companies were pure evil the likes of which has never been seen, you think the private sector is the only group doing research?

>> No.2617453

biology is orders of magnitude more complex than you suspect OP.

diseases arise from multiple causes, often unknown. the body is one set of variables, the environment another, and both are far too complex and changing to know completely.

If you even suspected how complex some of the obstacles are, you'd go insane. Your simple little world view would come crashing down around your ears and you'd be no more able to function than if you suddenly realized the scale of the universe. the complexity of systems within systems is such that we spend lifetimes studying one small part of the tiniest little bit and still never understand the vast majority.

our current rate of learning is the result of millions of the best minds alive working each on their little bit. It takes time, but we will cure those diseases. Sheer volumes of work and persistance virtually guarantee it.

>> No.2617456

>>2617447
>I hate america. There's no reason for it to be slow aside from a certain economical system that is no more useful to our current needs.
Fuck you. You think the scientists working on this stuff are lazy? And again, they're in academia mainly, not the private sector.

Are you suggesting that the NIH is some kind of massive conspiracy, with evil goals but no real motives?

>> No.2617476

>>2617419
How come all gifs can't be that large? This is awesome.

>> No.2617484

>I'm an outsider to all this

So why are you acting like you're entitled to a cure for everything?

We've sent robots to different planets, and you're coming off as if we can't do anything.

Do you ever stop and think about how much work goes in to cheating death so you can live your ignorant life a few more years?

>> No.2617507

>>2617484

>So why are you acting like you're entitled to a cure for everything?

Because Scientific advancements are supposed to be for the good of humanity?

I'm sure that if I had more exposure to it, I would be better inclined to understand, but I don't.

>> No.2617520
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2617520

Pic related, it's OP

>> No.2617529

>>2617507
He's not saying that science isn't solving these problems. He's saying you're an ignorant fuckwit with an unwarranted sense of entitlement and no appreciation for how damn hard people are working to solve these problems.
To quote,
>Do you ever stop and think about how much work goes in to cheating death so you can live your ignorant life a few more years?

>> No.2617536

>>2617456
Nope you faggot, I'm complaining about research not being funded enough when.

>The military budget was 663.8 billion dollars in the year 2010.

I'd tell you to go fuck yourself further, but it's a misunderstanding, so uh yeah.

Also conspiracy theories are stupid, people who dedicated a shitton of money to get a degree in x, I believe would like to actually make progress in their field. On the other hand, not funding research leads to nerp, conspiracy. if anything, yes money is being made from sick people, but that isn't because researchers are lazy, they aren't funded enough because.

>The military budget was 663.8 billion dollars in the year 2010.

can someone give me a dictatorian communist country I could lead, please?

>> No.2617547

>>2617536
Fair enough. I agree that our funding is misplaced. I just hate it when people shit on the scientists like they're complicit in some conspiracy or something.

>> No.2617560

>>2617507
I don't agree with this. Science is not something that is done for the "good of all mankind" but simply for the pursuit of knowledge.

Wait, no, it depends on the scientist in question. Science is amoral, it itself doesn't do things for the good of humanity

>> No.2617568

>>2617560
"Science" is amoral, but the people involved may have benevolent motives. Or they just think it's interesting, whatever.

>> No.2617579

No funding, which leads to less people becoming scientists.

Remember when some of the particle colliders closed due to lack of funding, the physicists all join wall street.

>Why haven't we colonized Mars yet? BAWWWW

People have to eat and love of science will only get you so far.

In a perfect world, I would get a phd and join the research, but there aren't enough positions in the workforce open, so I'm forced to go toward some other profession.

>> No.2617585

>>2617568
yeah, that's what I said

>> No.2617593

>>2617529

No, because I have no gauge of the magnitude of it.

However, if the gauge is ''Billions and Billions of Fuck'' as several posts have suggested, than I suppose I've underestimated the the proportions of modern technology in relation to Biology as a whole.

Nevertheless, I haven't really seen one of the points I addressed in my original post (Autism) addressed here - I find it particularly troubling that the incidence of this ailment has increased with public awareness of it.

Oh, and I never implied that Scientists weren't working, so there.

>> No.2617623

We seriously don't get paid enough or paid at all.
I'm surprised there are any scientists left around.

For example, during WW2, those scientists got paid a pittance compared to the magnitude of their achievement in building the atomic bomb. Some of them died from radiation sickness, had to put with their mails being censored, etc. etc.

I think one guy said it right, we're intellectual prostitutes bossed around by a bunch of MBA.

You give us enough funding and the only limit is the law of physics.

>> No.2617634

>>2617593
>I find it particularly troubling that the incidence of this ailment has increased with public awareness of it.
OH WOW

OK, here's a tip for you: Two hundred years ago, people didn't die of cancer. They died of "consumption". And they didn't get Alzheimer's. They had "senility".

>> No.2617674

>>2617634
That and over-diagnosis, like ADD. What they have in common is that they're both spectrums of disorder rather than a single concrete condition, and so it's easy to throw in people who really don't have the condition.