A little disappointed to see that such a successful author as Dan Brown cannot afford to get some basic math advice. In his latest book, “Inferno”, (warning, spoilers ahead) we follow a genius scientist who invents a new type of virus that changes the human DNA in order to stop the impending collapse of human civilization due to overpopulation; this theoretical “vector virus” is said to have the ability to change the DNA in such a way that a third of those affected are rendered infertile, but with the mention that the infertility trait is not inheritable (meaning that even if your parents were been fertile, you might still be born fertile)- and he specifically mentions that the fertility trait is activated randomly. It’s very confusing for me to understand how none of Dan Brown’s advisors told him what “random” means! With a basic elementary school understanding, one can simply infer that, given a population of billions, there exists a chance that, at some point in time, ALL of the children born on Earth can be infertile, thus leading to the demise of our human civilization. And vice-versa, at some point, there exists a chance that ALL of the children born on earth can be fertile, leading to the same situation we have today (of impending overpopulation due to us humans breeding like rabbits). So, in the end inventing such a “random acting“ virus is not a solution at all, it’s actually a ticking time-bomb that, I assert, would create an ever higher chance of total societal collapse than the current situation. And I don’t even want to get started on the fact that it’s virtually impossible for viruses (relatively simple life forms that carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection, but do not have intelligence) to coordinate among themselves in order to fulfill the inventor’s rule of “a third of the population is rendered infertile”. But I guess no one cares anyway about such questions when writing/publishing works of fiction.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:25:35 +0000
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