Gwangi Valley - Lost Blog of the Gwangi

REMINDER: While this is, in general, a science-based blog, it is still my own opinions and reactions to the subject at hand. And I have a dirty mouth. You have been warned.

First, I should define First World for those of you who don’t spend much time talking about this sort of thing. You’re undoubtedly familiar with the term ‘Third World’ and will surely have a general idea that this describes the portions of our planet which are home to our poorest and least privileged inhabitants. The First World is the one in which you and I live. The very fact that you’re reading this means that there is little chance that you are not in the First or Second World (Obligatory Wikipedia link).

But what of the First World’s place in relation to the Second World? How do we measure ourselves in relation to the poor and starving?

Well, my friend, on the Internet we do it by acting like a pack of privileged assholes. To whit:

Dean Kamen, an inventor who is most famous for the Segway but who has spent most of his life creating medical innovations which enhance quality of life for millions, has spent 5 years developing a water distillation machine that is viable and affordable enough to deploy into the Third World to help eradicate water-carried disease and dehydration. Such a machine, which uses other technologies he has put his effort into to create power and provide dependability, deployed to the regions in dire need of clean water could drastically re-shape the Third World and change the world. All of the world. Pretty cool, eh?

See this video:
http://gizmodo.com/370698/colbert-first-vid-of-dean-kamens-miracle-water-distiller

Now read the comments.

Done? Shocked?

Yes. See the arrogance? See the disconnected gall of the First World as it sits and judges Kamen as though their weighing of the efficacy of his pursuits is somehow important? See the scoffing at his efforts and the pronouncements of how he falls short? See yourself wanting to vomit?

Now, imagine a mother in the Third World who knows her child will likely die but for access to clean water. Do you honestly think she gives a damn that Kamen has only, according to Shane112358, created “a vapor compression distillation machine” for the Third World. Yeah. What was he thinking. Especially since, again according to Shane112358, “we’ve been working on them at NASA for years”. Yet, somehow, Shane112358… there are no fucking NASA vapor compression distillation machines being offered to these people!!!! But, hey, don’t let that stand in way of your privileged and exaulted position as Internet Scoffer, there, Napoleon Dimwit. I’m sure the people whose lives could be spared will stand with you and say “Oh, no no no! That is not a true innovation. We cannot accept this machine. What would NASA think of us?”

Are you fucking kidding me, Shane112358? Seriously?

Or maybe ccweems, who says “A part from that the process of vacuum distillation is old hat. Reverse osmosis is far more energy efficient” will be offering up some energy efficient reverse osmosis machines that can run easily and readily in the Third World where access to things like… the First World’s electricity and manufacturing infrastucture is a little weak, to say the least. Got your cow dung fueled reverse osmosis device built, have you, ccweems?

Ready to donate the first one? I thought not. Perhaps you’d find more satisfaction from calling people fags on YouTube, ccweems. You’re a little light here.

And then there’s the more honest elitists like Ralph48 who asks, “Do we really need inventions that help increase the number of humans on the planet?” Of course, not only does this expose the ease at callousness of the First World’s privileged, it also shows that just living in that world doesn’t necessarily mean you are well educated. You see, Ralph48, population growth and disease and poverty and hunger are a very complicated game. But one of the basic rules of statistical analysis for this game is: When people feel threatened by starvation or disease, they breed more to create greater a chance of survival of their genetic legacy. And, also, disease, as you may have noted, spreads. And it can spread to the second and third worlds. In creating a safer world, helping stop starvation and disease in the Third World is crucially necessary.

So, Ralph48, you’re an idiot, for lack of a more clever idiom. Check the dipstick on your idiot fluid next time before you post such vapid crap.

Look… having fun calling these jerks names is all well and good. Actually, I like it a lot. Asshole! Dickface! Fucktard! (whee!) But this sorry strawman of an ‘argument’ (if we can call it that…) is so weak that all you need to do is ask yourself this:

Will the people of the Third World over-breed if their children do not die in large numbers of malnutrtion, disease or lack of basic necessities?

Well, do other populations? Because these people are simply humans, exactly like you, Ralph48. Except for one thing; you had the good fortune to be born somewhere with clean water and acces to food. And, unless that water has some sort of ‘asshole-inizing’ additive, you really have no place acting like such a pompous jerk and, nose in the air, poo-pooing the work of someone who is actually trying to make a change to benefit us all. Especially as you sit here on a computer in the First World where clean water surrounds you. You have no conception, it seems, of the brutal world these people live in.

But Kamen, someone making a true difference (go read about the man if you doubt my word), for him you don’t have to lift a finger to help him or encourage him (the least you could do). No. But you seem giddily happy to lift that finger to scorn him on the Internet. Where does that come from? What makes you that way? Are you so out of touch with the realities of the real world, the world outside your city or country, that you simply can’t see this? Or could it be that, deep down, you really don’t care and just enjoy picking people apart, no matter how much good they’re attempting to do.

Or maybe you just hate yourself and take it out on others. Perhaps that’s it. Perhaps you feel impotent and small when others do big things. Well.. get the fuck over yourself.

Me, I tend to feel agreement with dwarf74 who, in countering the ‘this doesn’t solve some other problem’ strawman, said “it’s like saying a cure for AIDS is worthless if people are still going to die of cancer anyway. It’s flawed logic, and just shows you’re an asshole.”

Indeed. Assholes with no perspective on their place in the world, but a lot of opinions nonetheless (you know that old saying about opinions and assholes, right?). If Kamen were to start a 2-for-1 program — Buy a water distillation machine for the Third World, get an asshole filtering machine for the First World — I’d be first in line.

Loving Dean Kamen for all he does,
Ella Rache

* - If, indeed, it ever had one.