[decimon]

Ping

[ClearCase_guy]

In his novel "Candide", Voltaire made fun of early modern philosophy, by creating the philosopher Pangloss who believed that we live in "the best possible world" and that everything that happens is "for the best".

I see similarity in the modern approach to evolution. Everything that has happened over the course of billions of years is because of evolution. It is the magic explanation for everything. And it's all good. Cancer? That's evolution! And it's a toolkit! We're lucky to have it! Really!

Pollyanna science -- they've hitched their wagon to evolution and now must constantly invent evidence that it is real and good.

[rbg81]

Interesting, but I don’t follow the part where he says cancer is a “preprogrammed response to stress”. Does that mean that those of us who don’t stress don’t get cancer? Everything I’ve read previously suggest that cancer occurs due to genetic mistakes in the reproduction of cells, leading to cancer cells that reproduce out of control. Kind of like what might happen if you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy..... If the copy process is sloppy, eventually you may end up with a copy that is a transmogrification of the original.

[printhead]

The “coming era of personalized medicine” and obamacare are diametrically opposed.