Having been a Java hacker on a multimillion dollar "Y2K remediation"
project for two years from 1997-1999, I've often wondered how much of
the whole thing was hyperbole, and how much was real. According to
Wikipedia's article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2K), about $300
billion US was spent worldwide on the effort. Just as with H1N1, the
dire predictions never materialized, but it is far from clear whether
or not this was becasue of the effort and capital spent. Same with the
massive military spending in the 1980s: did the Soviet Union fall
because of it, or simply because some critical mass of something had
been reached?
Sounds like some good candidates for a bit of Agent Based Modeling,
but then <cynicism>history seems much harder to model than to rewrite</
cynicism >.
;; Gary
On Sep 20, 2009, at 10:05 AM, ERIC P. CHARLES wrote:
Jochen,
I have been wondering that as well. I keep having flashbacks to the
imminent demise of the technological world at the stroke of
midnight, new years eve, Y2K.
Certainly there is a pandemic in the limited technical sense that
the disease has spread globally. However, the implied meaning of the
term (taken advantage of by politicians, some scientists, and the
drug industry) of something that will kill many, many people seem
not to have materialized. It may yet, I suppose. The level of near-
panic, and the resources spent pre-planning, at Penn State is quite
impressive. They are acting like it is polio, or the pneumonic
plague. I'm sure some industry sale's rep will retire happily off of
our vaccine purchases alone.
Of course, when all is said and done the "evil global corporations"
will be vindicated either way. If a bunch of people die, then the
evil corporations will say how right they were in warning us and
emphasize that we should give them more money next time.
Alternatively, if few die, then the evil corporations will say how
good it was we bought their vaccines and did every thing they said
(also demonstrating the effectiveness of my elephant repellent
necklace).
Orwell would definitely understand.
Eric
On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 10:20 AM, "Jochen Fromm" <jfr...@t-online.de>
wrote:
What happend with all the victims of the
H1N1 swine flu virus? Is it possible that
a bit of the hype was generated and
exaggerated by the pharmaceutical industry
itself to sell a bit more swine flu vaccine?
The swine flu vaccine has recently been
approved and bought by governments around
the world, certainly a multi-million dollar business.
Somehow, the hype was largest when the
vaccine was under development and nearly
finished.
This makes me wonder if it is possible
that the pharmaceutical industry generates
the threat of a possible pandemic to make
money, just as the industrial-military complex
is able to generate the threat of WMDs
to create revenue. A ministry of defense which
triggers a war and a ministry of health which
causes a pandemic - this sounds like George
Orwell. Is our fate in the hand of evil global
corporations?
-J.
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lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
