Sixty years ago today, the first 3500 combat troops arrived in Vietnam to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang. I do not know whether any of those troops were among the 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. But a quick search tells me the total number of U.S. military fatalities from that war was greater than each one of the current populations of Prescott Valley, Arizona; Everett, Massachusetts; Gallatin, Tennessee; Saratoga Springs, Utah; and Bothell, Washington. It boggles the mind; numbers greater than the entire populations of small cities. Every soldier’s death must have reverberated through families and entire communities, leaving gaping holes that could never be filled. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed during the war range from 970,000 to 3 million, leaving shock and grief across an even larger cross-section of people whose lives were upended by state-sponsored violence. The collective number of physically and mentally wounded victims of the war must be unimaginably larger than the number of deaths. I wonder how the citizens of countries that were embroiled in the war were persuaded that the killings and injuries were justified? Is propaganda that effective?
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Around 6 yesterday afternoon I developed a severe case of heartburn; among the worst cases I can remember experiencing. Chewing a mouthful of Tums had no immediate palliative effect, but the discomfort slowly became more tolerable during the course of several hours in bed. The Polish dog I had for yesterday’s lunch and/or the bean burrito I ate for an early dinner may have been responsible for the pain, but I do not recall such foods causing me such discomfort in the past. This morning I continue to deal with the aftermath of heartburn; a feeling of fullness almost to the point of being bloated. I may regret drinking espresso; had I been thinking more clearly when I woke up, I would have limited my liquid intake to water. I did not sleep a full 11 hours last night and this morning, but I was able to sleep for a good bit of that time. Still, though, I am tired. I may have to try to nap again.
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At what point would “replacements” for failing human body parts be considered “too much?” Perhaps a better question would address the point beyond which replacement parts would transform a human into a human-machine hybrid or something clearly not fully human. Whether the replacements are biologically identical parts harvested from other people or are created from non-biological components may be factors to consider. Or maybe the only human part that would be off limits would be the brain—the organ considered by most people to be the driver of humans’ humanity? I think the degree to which an artificial body part replicates—exactly—the original may be a factor; the more similar to the “real thing,” the more acceptable…ethically. Artificial intelligence (AI) probably will accelerate the need to make decisions about what is acceptable and what is not…if, indeed, anything is not acceptable. Issues unrelated to the core function of a replacement part probably will come into play at some point. For example, if replacement parts were to effectively assure “human” immortality, how would humankind deal with growing numbers of living, breathing people? Available space might become the deciding factor, versus the degree to which a person remains a person after having more than fifty percent of his body replaced with artificial parts. This probably is not something that will need action within the next two years, but it may not be long thereafter before it requires serious consideration.
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Sleep has never been fully understood; and it probably will never be completely revealed for what it is. It is just as mysterious as life in the deepest parts of the deepest oceans. We still do not know all the insects that inhabit Earth. Our appreciation of non-human life forms is shaped by our tendency to compare other beings’ lives with our own, even though we have little reason to believe the comparisons are legitimate. I read a headline the other day that claims a scientist…somewhere…has successfully transformed light into a flexible solid. We have only skimmed the surface of reality. I would like to see a snapshot of what more humans will know in a thousand years. Perhaps I can. Just not yet.
