Rather than the usual fare on my blog, I’d like to present a philosophical ideal.
In ancient history, natural selection had made those, who were most fit for survival survive, and therefore pass on their genes. This system had sustained us for centuries, eventually creating the human species we are today. However, somehow, somewhere, we started to civilize. What this meant was that humans gradually started to ‘equalize’, or at least regarded as equal. As medical science advanced, everyone could get the same level of health care, regardless of their capabilities. This is totally contrary to that which had propelled us so much further all those years ago.
An example of this can be found in the episode ‘Critical Care’ of Star Trek Voyager (7×05). Most of this episode played out in an alien hospital in which patients were treated based on their ‘treatment coefficient’, or TC. A TC is a number representing their value to society. For example, a woman leading the power plant which provides energy for half the planet was granted a very high TC. This in turn meant she would receive the utmost care available. However, if your TC was too low, you would hardly receive any proper care, since medicine which could save low TCs their lives, was instead used to prolong the valuable member’s life by a few years as a routine treatment.
I’m not at all implying that this would be a system that would work in our society. But it does already apply. Globalization is a great example of this. In the East, there’s a much bigger drive to compete and make money, which is quite difficult on the competitive market. However, a side-effect of this can also be seen. If we look at the greatest technological advances that have been introduced lately, where do they come from? Yes, it is true that in the West we still have this drive, but it is not as big as in the East, as we do not need to be innovative to earn enough money to provide for ourselves.
This touches on the inequality of the earth itself as well. A lot of people seem like they would love to see that the people in Africa would have equal wealth as we do. But what if this would somehow be realized? You could argue that we use much more resources than we could live with, but the truth is that even if everything was divided equally, there would be such huge amounts more we would need to produce, seeing as the Western world really will not settle for less. At the moment this equality would be established, every natural resource on earth would be depleted within years.
I suppose the whole point I’m making is that while we might think we’re so enlightened in our Western culture, but all we’re heading towards is stagnation due to the lack of true competition, and change..?
Tags: Philosophy
I think, personally, that such a rating system would be acceptable, and even good, in today’s world. People dislike the idea of equality and would rather have their race, age group or whatever they belong to, to be the best. Fix that problem by rating each group based on how socially acceptable they are, and boom. Good post.