Scientific and technological progress has indirectly caused millions upon millions of deaths that would not have occurred in the absence of scientific-technological progress.
It has also directly saved millions upon millions of lives.
Is that true? It sounds plausible, but I’d like to see evidence.
Given that we haven’t achieved immortality yet, we’d have to specify what it means to “save a life”.
Yeah, I was thinking that. QALYs would be nice but tricky to deal with.
The first thing that comes to mind as establishing a lower bound are antibiotics but their effects are pretty complicated I think.
It has also directly saved millions upon millions of lives.
Is that true? It sounds plausible, but I’d like to see evidence.
Given that we haven’t achieved immortality yet, we’d have to specify what it means to “save a life”.
Yeah, I was thinking that. QALYs would be nice but tricky to deal with.
The first thing that comes to mind as establishing a lower bound are antibiotics but their effects are pretty complicated I think.