This short story appears in the current issue of Nature. You can read it here for a limited time: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7414/full/489170a.html
This short story appears in the current issue of Nature. You can read it here for a limited time: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7414/full/489170a.html
This is brilliant!
‘Tis a thing of beauty.
So everybody has to specialise in everything? One can no longer devote oneself to ones field and trust another to be expert in their field!
I took the liberty to translate it to Spanish and post it on my g+ timeline, with all the credits and citations due (and a link to this blog).
If you want my to take it down feel free to tell me and I will immediately comply.
Independently of any decision on your part to have it taken down, you (the author, Tony Ballantyne) may make free use of the translation.
At a superficial level, the story is entertaining, but on a deeper level it represents the fondness that academics have for fascism. I guess I’m most horrified because I’ve seen the attitude first hand with clinican friends who want to strip parents of their guardianship for daring to question medical advice. Sure, parents do make “dumb” decisions, but so does the medical profession. Do we really want to restore their power to lobotomize and sterilize the uncooperative?
As someone who has taken severe flak for this – just saying the following may not divert unwelcome attention from the shrill and unreasonable:
‘“This is nothing to do with you being female, Ms Melham,” said James, calmly.”
But I like the sentiment, even though it hints at a disturbingly interventionist state….