Pandemic

[speeddemon]

No, not the game. No, not swine flu. Hypothetical question.

Imagine that there was a pandemic, one that was guaranteed to devastate humanity immensely. Now the cure is found, but many people have died. Billions are clamoring for a cure, but you only have so many vaccines. The virus is sure to leave some people alive, but you are unsure of who, as the young or strong die just as often as the old or weak. How would you decide who to vaccinate? Your actions will condemn thousands to their deaths, but you hold in your hands a way to ensure that some of the best genes mankind has to offer are passed along. By that same token, if you only save those that can still reproduce, you be left without a generation of children and the ones that are saved will resent you for the deaths of loved ones, friends, parents, grandparents, children, etc.

It was a question posed to us by one of our teachers, and it actually made me think. I know logically what types of people i would save, but emotionally i cannot condemn so many. The decision to me seems to have the same, if not more gravity than the decision to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I would prefer serious thought in the matter, but i doubt this is actually something that would be considered as a CT thread.

Oh and just to cover my bases, i haven't seen this sort of thread, but i also haven't been around as of late. I did a quick scan of the threads, but i very well may have missed the thread that's like this one if it exists.

[NFD]

That there WAS* a pandemic, jeez.

[speeddemon]

Thanks i guess?

[foilman8805]

I don't know if NFD's grammar correction applies anyways...'is' makes more sense since you're trying to get us to focus on the situation. Whatever. Doesn't matter.

Truly a thought provoking question...I'm almost prepared to say that I can't answer it. Just too many variables for me to comprehend.

Assuming things like libraries, and informational resources are still available after the pandemic (meaning no sciences or information is lost), and that the public has placed their faith in my decision, then I would quite honestly go with a lottery system. 'Lottery' is taken out of context here because you're obviously winning nothing you'd want.

I'd inform the public of the situation, distribute tickets to everyone, and then pull the numbers. Simple, fair, and likely the only solution that wouldn't cause massive backlash. The process would be transparent too. Nothing behind closed doors. Everyone would see it.

[Izzy]

Maybe tickets to whole familys. So you are saved as a family.

[danthemano]

Rock paper scissors tournament.
It'll make the winners feel like they deserve to be alive because its not completely a random selection. Everyone has the opportunity to win.
The only problem is people with guns who don't like rock paper scissors and want to live.
or just generally people with guns, because the truth is that if they're not chosen to survive, then they really have nothing left to live for. Which would lead to some bad stuff.

[Necros140606]

let people die until the cure is enough for the survivors

jk let all the people die this is what the planet's waiting for

also take advantage of the situation and kill every [insert category here]

[DrKirth]

Let your colleague distribute the cures. Then you wouldn't have to decide yourself. It's a common and effective practice.

[Crashfan3]

I hate to seem like a complete asshole with this post, but somebody's gotta do it.

You could use this pandemic as an opportunity to "prune" the human race, on either a physical or psychological basis.

[speeddemon]

Originally Posted by Crashfan3

I hate to seem like a complete asshole with this post, but somebody's gotta do it.

You could use this pandemic as an opportunity to "prune" the human race, on either a physical or psychological basis.

Of course you don't seem an asshole. Stated as a possibility in the op. It's something i would highly consider doing, but the problem with that is there isn't a sure way to know who truly belongs among the elite. Perfect example; i myself am pretty intelligent, but if you were to see me you would probably think stoner, or dropout, or some such thing. If the disease were able to kill someone in the matter of a day, there would be no time for testing, and thus you would have to go on quickly found data, which can be inaccurate, or looks and first impressions alone. If you were able to pull it off though, most of the lives saved would be much happier ones, given the situation. Major reform could begin if you were to succeed, leading to much better lives for any future generations as well.

[Plaking]

Id hide the cure and just use it on myself and the girl i Like, then when evryones dead except the two of us, we can revive the world.

[foilman8805]

Inbred, mutated children abound.

That sounds great.

[speeddemon]

Originally Posted by Plaking

Id hide the cure and just use it on myself and the girl i Like, then when evryones dead except the two of us, we can revive the world.

And have a severely limited gene pool, not to mention your children would have to reproduce with each other. You would have to learn how to help with childbirth. You would only be curing two people, and surely your supply would run short if you had no idea how to make the vaccine. Way down the line, assuming you raise your children the way i see someone like you doing, which is without true knowledge of how much of a supply you have left, you would run out of vaccines. Unless you knew the location, and taught every child of yours biology and how to create the vaccine and change it should mutations occur, you will have doomed mankind.

[Syhto]

kill everything

except for me

then die alone of old age among the animals and corpses littering the streets and homes
homes rotting and infested with insects and rats
it would be so eerily awesome

it would be cool to meet on the other side and be like, yeah, that's right
i was the last one left

[coraleaterlinda]

pick a number between 1 and 10.

seriously, do some kind of random drawing/lottery thing.

[Quigly]

FFR contest. Sudden death style.

[shad0wlord]

In the opening you imply billions of people are still alive. This leads me to ask the state of which this situation occurs... So what would be the estimated death rate of the illness and how what percent on the world would be infected and is that percentage rising/falling?

With "billions" still alive I would not have much of a concern, possibly just giving vaccines to those most highly at risk in infected areas. I doubt certain professions or demographics would be harmed too much with much of the human population still alive, at least outside of geography. However if say all those who got the disease died and so hundreds of millions have died as a result, then there would be a concern. However i'm fairly certain isolation would be more preferred then vaccines at that point.

[devonin]

Originally Posted by foilman8805

Inbred, mutated children abound.

That sounds great.

Just as a minor thing, the primary issue with incest as a means of reproduction up until the very very long term isn't that you just create freak mutant babies. Animals inbreed -constantly- and you very rarely get genetic freaks.

The thing that makes inbreeding tenuous even in the short term is that inbreeding makes recessive traits more likely to come up, so if you have something serious or negative as a recessive trait genetically, you're more likely to see that characteristic come out from inbred children.

But if you don't have a genetic history of any really bad conditions, the actual genetic consequences of a few generations of inbreeding would actually be pretty minor.

Mind you, ugh, gross. But still.

[FallenXxRaven]

Necros, Crashfan - You both were saying what I thought. This is going to make me sound like an ass for sure, but were overpopulated, and if one or two billion people die it may just be a good thing. And if this happened we could take out all the unwanted traits in humans(I hear a banjo!!!! =P) and in effect, create kind of a superhuman race, with only the best traits and qualities... And now that I read that I just sounded like Adolf Hitler with the Aryan race didnt I? o.o

[shad0wlord]

Originally Posted by FallenXxRaven

Necros, Crashfan - You both were saying what I thought. This is going to make me sound like an ass for sure, but were overpopulated, and if one or two billion people die it may just be a good thing. And if this happened we could take out all the unwanted traits in humans(I hear a banjo!!!! =P) and in effect, create kind of a superhuman race, with only the best traits and qualities... And now that I read that I just sounded like Adolf Hitler with the Aryan race didnt I? o.o

However the situation does not state what nations may be hit the hardest. What if 3rd world nations were effected the least, while areas such at North America and Europe were devastated, with the a large majority of the population left alive being very poor and uneducated?