Thus is the tragedy of history. How many Mozarts had their intellectual and artistic potential destroyed through a simple lack of an element like iodine? How many times in the ancient past must...
Thus is the tragedy of history. How many Mozarts had their intellectual and artistic potential destroyed through a simple lack of an element like iodine? How many times in the ancient past must have people frozen to death atop a hill full of coal or uranium? How many Einsteins died illiterate and innumerate peasants? How many heroes, saints, geniuses, and world-changing visionaries died before age two due to diseases that can now be prevented by a dirt cheap injection?
I don't envy or romanticize the past. The figures we learn of from centuries ago were the extremely lucky ones, those that managed to have the wealth and luck to escape the fate of so many lives ruined through easily preventable maladies. Half of the story of human history is just an endless tale of missed opportunities and pointlessly wasted lives.
I don't want to minimize these tragedies, or the way they've personally moved you. I think we ought to prevent suffering when we can. But there's something about dwelling on the "easily...
I don't want to minimize these tragedies, or the way they've personally moved you. I think we ought to prevent suffering when we can.
But there's something about dwelling on the "easily preventable" that feels off to me. Like your example of somebody freezing to death on top of a pile of coal: they had everything they needed, but they didn't use it, and they died tragically. Except… they didn't have everything they needed. What they needed was information, and that is just as real as any physical good. And just like physical goods, information can be scarce. I can imagine another hypothetical person who froze to death because they ran out of coal — it's the exact same thing (suffering caused by lack of a resource), but when the missing resource is made of atoms, it packs less of an emotional punch.
What I'm trying to say is, sometimes the "easily preventable" isn't. Remember, we are living someone else's past! In all likelihood, a time traveler from the year 7023 could greatly improve our own quality of life by dropping off a few instructions. But if our constant refrain was, "Woe is us, there is so much pointless suffering in the 2020s, if only we had a time machine…" maybe we shouldn't feel too down about that specific point.
It's also worth spending less time dwelling on accidents of history and instead on the current situations where people die of something easily preventable. For instance, how many people die of...
What I'm trying to say is, sometimes the "easily preventable" isn't. Remember, we are living someone else's past!
It's also worth spending less time dwelling on accidents of history and instead on the current situations where people die of something easily preventable. For instance, how many people die of tuberculosis in the developing world today despite it being very easily treated and cured in more affluent countries. This almost certainly is the case for any people suffering from iodine insufficiency in 2023 as well. Let's not focus on how many potential Mozarts might have died of something preventable in the relatively distant past bur rather on how many potential Mozarts are dying each year of preventable causes right now.
Thus is the tragedy of history. How many Mozarts had their intellectual and artistic potential destroyed through a simple lack of an element like iodine? How many times in the ancient past must have people frozen to death atop a hill full of coal or uranium? How many Einsteins died illiterate and innumerate peasants? How many heroes, saints, geniuses, and world-changing visionaries died before age two due to diseases that can now be prevented by a dirt cheap injection?
I don't envy or romanticize the past. The figures we learn of from centuries ago were the extremely lucky ones, those that managed to have the wealth and luck to escape the fate of so many lives ruined through easily preventable maladies. Half of the story of human history is just an endless tale of missed opportunities and pointlessly wasted lives.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I don't want to minimize these tragedies, or the way they've personally moved you. I think we ought to prevent suffering when we can.
But there's something about dwelling on the "easily preventable" that feels off to me. Like your example of somebody freezing to death on top of a pile of coal: they had everything they needed, but they didn't use it, and they died tragically. Except… they didn't have everything they needed. What they needed was information, and that is just as real as any physical good. And just like physical goods, information can be scarce. I can imagine another hypothetical person who froze to death because they ran out of coal — it's the exact same thing (suffering caused by lack of a resource), but when the missing resource is made of atoms, it packs less of an emotional punch.
What I'm trying to say is, sometimes the "easily preventable" isn't. Remember, we are living someone else's past! In all likelihood, a time traveler from the year 7023 could greatly improve our own quality of life by dropping off a few instructions. But if our constant refrain was, "Woe is us, there is so much pointless suffering in the 2020s, if only we had a time machine…" maybe we shouldn't feel too down about that specific point.
It's also worth spending less time dwelling on accidents of history and instead on the current situations where people die of something easily preventable. For instance, how many people die of tuberculosis in the developing world today despite it being very easily treated and cured in more affluent countries. This almost certainly is the case for any people suffering from iodine insufficiency in 2023 as well. Let's not focus on how many potential Mozarts might have died of something preventable in the relatively distant past bur rather on how many potential Mozarts are dying each year of preventable causes right now.