At 08:45 PM 12/31/03 -0500, John Kelsey wrote: > >You do know she's been trying the same scheme for several hundred thousand >years, right? As an artist, I think she's in a creative decline. Ebola is >picturesque and flashy, but not all that scary unless your funeral rites >involve lots of contact with the blood of your dearly departed.
I think E. is a bit more contagious than you recognize. It just hasn't had the chance to play in dense pops. AIDS is >more subtle, rather like syphlus before good antibiotics, but it's not her >best work. Yeah but the meatbots do love to spread it, and here you again fail to recognize Her subtlety. Even SARS is Yet Another Coughed Contagion. If I recall >correctly, smallpox got 90% of the American Indians who were exposed, and >measles killed something like 1/3 of Roman citizens. Smallpox would reduce real estate prices by 1/3 at least, possibly more in cities. An interesting question is what decline (and what rate of decline) west.civ. can tolerate these days. Still, looking at the Roman Empire (aka paleo-cons) disease isn't necessary, though it sure helps. Famine and war are pretty good cards in Her Hands too. Guns, germs, and steel, baby.