( 20 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 6 2009
Mr. Preston,I'm going to address you that way out of deep respect,Sir, thank you! Though I am several years your senior you have lifted a lifelong burden from me.It began at about age ten with the first of numerous readings of "A Canticle For Leibowitz". You see, I've been waking up in terror of nuclear bombs all my life. I awake and I say to myself, "this cannot be real, they, other humans, cannot have done this, made these things, but in my hyper awake state I know it's real and cannot push it aside as usually when I am fully awake". Actually,I feel uncomfortable addressing you as "Mr.". You surely have earned an M.D./PhD in this field by now.Dr. Preston, Sir, I no longer fear large hydrogen bombs.I see that they are, if mass murder is the goal,very humane. In fact,fantastically humane compared to boosted smallpox or anthrax or plague resistant to any known vaccine or antibiotic ( as the case may be depending on the lifeform etc )delivered by ICBM riding on MIRVs. Please,you over there in the Russian Federation,yes, you monsters,please send the H Bombs not the germs. But,and it was totally news to me,since you developed this abject horror of horrors,why did you not use it? And, have you destroyed your many ton stockpile? Are the MIRVs now empty of the end of the human race? Was that the reason? Dr. Preston, I'm going pay you the respect I think you've earned,what people you've encountered and let us meet in this and "Hot Zone" which I also just read. The best people a society can produce. People who can walk into level four in a suit and not panic. I know what fate would await me there. I feel as if I know some of them personally. I'd feel self conscious and unworthy to be in the same room with most of the real life characters in your book. Yet, what of this horror now? You've taken away from me this life long crippling fear. This dread that other humans really made these things. Ah, but they are so crude and can only vaporize a human or a city. That's really nothing compared to what, in many cases, you leave unsaid. And now, as we watch this new flu spreading out of any control whatsoever, those of us who have read your books can fear the "multiplier" of smallpox or plague. I wondered as I read this book if eradicating smallpox was really the best thing to have done. You say a billion people died from it in the 100 years prior to the last cast in 1978. Yet, what would the world's population be today had this and other diseases not existed? Yet, you comment on this as well in pointing out the concentration of humanity in cities and explaining to us that some diseases like smallpox cannot exist without a minimum critical mass of human beings to keep it flowing in and out of a population. You hint you know the truth: That over population and concentration of it may make fighting diseases like smallpox difficult in the future even in the absence of terror weapons like unstoppable genetically engineered strains. And, if such novel human variations on a theme of horror of something like smallpox were to get loose..... Well, the problem is that while Western science, scientific methods, and organization have ended or slowed many diseases, there has not been a concomitant reduction in birthrate in those areas typically the prime target of the disease in the recent past ( read this India for example ). Nature is a grim reaper and will control our population even if we will not. I am left with one large question after reading this book and "Hot Zone". That is to question the humanity of letting people die of things like variola major, ebola, or the worst strains of anthrax. This reminds me of a section in "Canticle" where there has been another nuclear war and the government has set up special stations for those with terminal radiation poisoning-places where they can die peacefully without having to go through the entire menu of horrors awaiting them. We'd all certainly have to make informed individual decisions if we were to learn we had contracted a strain of genetically modified smallpox that is incurable. That's where my question originates. I knew things were bad regarding genetic engineering. What I didn't know, that this book has informed me of, is just "how" bad the future looks. We should not be tinkering with DNA or RNA. We haven't got the intelligence to control what may be produced. As you said, Trinity was for physicists.....what nothing yet has come along similar for biologists.....it makes me think of Oppenheimer and his famous quote not to be repeated here because any literate adult should know the one to which I refer. That god....the god of smallpox...... S. Ma How can the same animal both end a horror like smallpox and amplify it into something that could end the species? Can such an animal be rational and intelligent as we so proudly trumpet? Or are we just a subspecies of chimp who, unfortunately for ourselves and our planet and all it's other lifeforms, is just a little bit too clever for our collective good? I'd say chimp...though I mean no disrespect to that species as it's not likely to cause the harm that our species has only just begun to commit. Thank you again, Mr/Dr Preston. Knowledge is a good thing even if it removes one horror by replacing it with one even worse. You're just the highly able and insightful messenger....not responsible for this horror. I cannot think of anything more to say except may God help us and protect us from ourselves. ps. You are now on my very short list of famous people I'd like to meet personally. This is a very short list and now that Gould and Clarke are gone is shorter still. I'd like to shake you hand and will do so here in a virtual sense. I'd only like to say two words to you: "Thank You".
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Posted: May 22 2009
Compelling as can be, and equally terrifying. Not fear mongering as he does not call for political action . . . just telling us what might happen if this nightmare were to be unleashed. And it is all possible.
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Posted: May 9 2009
Another book that will give you some serious nightmares. Really cool & interesting stuff on how smallpox was eradicated by a huge team of people all over the world. At some point it was thought that the only smallpox left in the world was at the CDC in Atlanta & at a Russian virology facility. Then came the 1980's & pretty good evidence that the Russians were conducting research on weaponizing smallpox. Meanwhile, US eradicated its supply of vaccine (to save money) - leaving us with about 1 vaccine for every 12,000 people. Then the Soviet Union fell apart & who knows where all those stores of weaponized smallpox went. Just yikes. While the emerging hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola are pretty freakin' scary, they (so far) aren't airborne - transmission is from skin and mucous membrane contact. Ebola also tends to burn through a population very quickly - killing off so many people around it that it runs out of places to jump. This makes it a less than optimal bioterrorism weapon. Smallpox, however, is unbelievably scary. It's airborne. During the 20th century it was responsible for between 300-500 million deaths. Transmission rates were it to re-emerge today are estimated to be at about an order of 10. That means 1 infected person would infect 10 others who would each infect 10 others, etc. Preston covers the debate among current scientists around whether or not to continue working with smallpox & testing it. Those against argue that it should all be destroyed. Those for argue that it can't all be destroyed and that with the ever present threat of bioterrorism on the rise, research should continue if only for the purpose of developing better vaccines. There are a number of nasty complications associated with the current vaccine which has been around since 1796. Preston also talks a bit about the anthrax letters, transmission, and early stages of the investigation into who sent them, but as the book was published in 2002, not much is known at the time he was writing. This book is definitely worth reading if you're interested in this stuff. It's technical enough, but not so technical you want to pull your eyes out. Quite enjoyable, if scary.
