4 ms·

it's fun, to think of what practices today will seem barbaric or primitive in the future. surely all "modern medicine" will fall into that category.

dvdcxn 11y ago
This assumes our future doesn't involve a global collapse of society.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
Udik 11y ago
I strongly hope they will be seen as primitive. As for barbaric, I don't think so - our medical practices are based on (mostly) solid peer-reviewed studies and statistics, so at least we know that they do work, albeit in some cases definitely not enough.
- Houshalter 11y ago
  To take a devil's advocate to that, there's not a lot of evidence that much of modern medicine is that helpful. I read about a study where people were given health insurance didn't do better than those without it, even though they went to the doctor far more, got better treatments earlier, etc. Another study that most surgeries weren't better than placebo surgeries. And we don't even test surgical placebos yet. And then another study that a significant portion of deaths were due to hospital errors. Of course that's ignoring that there is a lot of medicine that obviously does work and is great. No one is going to dispute that antibiotics are literally the greatest thing ever, or that insulin saves tons of diabetics, or that cancer treatment has saved a lot of lives. On the other hand some things we do are quite horrible, like keeping old people alive long past the point it's worth it. Or not cryogenically preserving everyone because it's "weird".
  - scottlocklin 11y ago
    Great book on the history of pre-antibiotic medicine is "Devils, Drugs and Doctors" by Howard Haggard, available online here: http://www.unz.org/Pub/HaggardHoward-1929 http://www.unz.org/Pub/HaggardHoward-1929 As I recall, you could boil down medical progress up to the publication date as "discovery of germs" as in "washing hands," "cleaning things," "vaccination," "isolate people with plague from the well" and "don't drink water you pooped in" -and the discovery of anesthesia, which made complex surgery possible. I'd say antibiotics is the main further improvement.
InclinedPlane 11y ago
It's interesting to think about how much of those changes will be due to new technology enabling new ways of doing things and how much will be due to simply superior knowledge. Consider, for example, what someone going back in time to the early 19th century or earlier would be able to improve just by giving instructions, assuming they'd listen. Pasteurization, sterilization, hand washing, the germ theory of disease, etc, etc. Even things like blood type and how to do transfusions effectively. I suspect that in the future there will be a few "boil water" or "wash your hands" type lessons learned that will affect how we do medicine that aren't dependent on futuristic technology.

dvdcxn 11y ago

This assumes our future doesn't involve a global collapse of society.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Udik 11y ago

I strongly hope they will be seen as primitive. As for barbaric, I don't think so - our medical practices are based on (mostly) solid peer-reviewed studies and statistics, so at least we know that they do work, albeit in some cases definitely not enough.

Houshalter 11y ago
To take a devil's advocate to that, there's not a lot of evidence that much of modern medicine is that helpful. I read about a study where people were given health insurance didn't do better than those without it, even though they went to the doctor far more, got better treatments earlier, etc. Another study that most surgeries weren't better than placebo surgeries. And we don't even test surgical placebos yet. And then another study that a significant portion of deaths were due to hospital errors. Of course that's ignoring that there is a lot of medicine that obviously does work and is great. No one is going to dispute that antibiotics are literally the greatest thing ever, or that insulin saves tons of diabetics, or that cancer treatment has saved a lot of lives. On the other hand some things we do are quite horrible, like keeping old people alive long past the point it's worth it. Or not cryogenically preserving everyone because it's "weird".
- scottlocklin 11y ago
  Great book on the history of pre-antibiotic medicine is "Devils, Drugs and Doctors" by Howard Haggard, available online here: http://www.unz.org/Pub/HaggardHoward-1929 http://www.unz.org/Pub/HaggardHoward-1929 As I recall, you could boil down medical progress up to the publication date as "discovery of germs" as in "washing hands," "cleaning things," "vaccination," "isolate people with plague from the well" and "don't drink water you pooped in" -and the discovery of anesthesia, which made complex surgery possible. I'd say antibiotics is the main further improvement.

InclinedPlane 11y ago

It's interesting to think about how much of those changes will be due to new technology enabling new ways of doing things and how much will be due to simply superior knowledge. Consider, for example, what someone going back in time to the early 19th century or earlier would be able to improve just by giving instructions, assuming they'd listen. Pasteurization, sterilization, hand washing, the germ theory of disease, etc, etc. Even things like blood type and how to do transfusions effectively. I suspect that in the future there will be a few "boil water" or "wash your hands" type lessons learned that will affect how we do medicine that aren't dependent on futuristic technology.