Ironically, in view of the immediately preceding post, the very next instalment in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, which we editorially are (i.e., I am) currently rereading, is "What Shall It Profit?," in which Anderson asks how human aging might be prevented and answers that maybe an organism shielded from all cosmic radiation would not age but would of necessity have to be kept permanently so far underground that no normal human life would be possible. Ironically (again), deathlessness has become a dead end.
This one-off story makes its point against the backdrop of the Psychotechnic History but we are not told any outcome. The concluding question, asked by the custodian of a score of un-aging morons, is never answered:
"'What are we going to do?'" (p. 89)
3 comments:
I've always suspected that the stories where immortality turns out to be a curse are of the "and the damned grapes were sour anyway" order.
I have heard of some evidence for 'radiation hormesis', ie: at low levels of ionizing radiation it is better to have more *up to a point*.
The hypothesis is that radiation stimulates repair mechanisms & these repair mechanisms more than compensate for the damage done by the radiation *at low levels*.
There is a more general hormesis hypothesis that modest amounts of any stress stimulate repair mechanisms that result in health being highest at greater than zero stress.
I heard that this is being tested with simple organisms (yeast?) in the low radiation environment deep in the Sudbury Ontario nickel mines, close to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. IIRC they are also feeding the organisms potasium depleted in K40 to further reduce the radiation dose received.
If the radiation hormesis hypothesis is correct the control organisms receiving normal amounts of radiation will do better the organisms in the extremely low radiation environment. The opposite of Anderson's hypothesis used for story purposes.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
Mr. Stirling: How Aesopian of you! My favorite fable being the story of the frogs who asked
Zeus for a king.
Jim: Intriguing. SOME radiation might be good for prolonging life.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment