"Failed" Science - WSF2023 (just for fun)

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Historical Sub-entry: "Lambert's Treatment"

As the Proclamation of Mental Acuity became the accepted paradigm of outcome-driven mental health care, the synchronous development of the new class of molecular engineering products became highly profitable and thus analogously, highly promoted.

During the decades that followed, field experiments had led the medical institutions to designate what we now refer to as the "Settlement Treatment" (ST) or "Lambert's Treatment."

The 'preemptive' application of a synthetic biophysical production organ to the human body at birth, made it possible to program the organ to spontaneously produce substances in the body, according to engineered specifications. Thus, even congenital conditions could be at least partially controlled, rendering the past tragedies of "DNA-based solutions" and "genetic engineering" and other missteps a thing of the past forever. [ref. "Wheeler's folly," and "Who knew?" by Archer Previtt]

Dr. Ramshen Lambert, Nobel Laureate for his mathematical analysis of "Meta Programmatic Dynamics in Bioactive Substances," applied his landmark theories about trans-generative dissemination of chemically driven processes in the human brain to the prospect of generating "proto instinctive" thought and perception patterns in human development.

Populist marketing applications reduced the idea to "take this pill and you will have read a book." The marketing had the unfortunate effect of artificially constraining research towards that objective, which cost Dr. Lambert at least two decades diverting him from his ultimate goal, which was to nullify human violence and destructive impulses. To make it impossible for people to conceive of hurting one another... to render that outside the range of human thought.

Early refinements in the manipulation of human brain physiochemistry made his later efforts far more difficult to characterize as successful.

Few in the scientific community ever seemed to have considered the wildly popular, and almost immediately over-used, "chemical learning" tools as a danger. It was obscenely profitable for one, so the marketing and amplification of the treatment, made it difficult to seriously criticize. On the other hand, as extraplanetary colonization had begun in earnest, "Settlement Treatment" had become a life-saving, and extremely convenient thing. There were ST sets that turned a Settler from a completely single-focused specialist into a generalist capable of exploiting new knowledge in ancillary fields, without ever having to spend the many decades acquiring experiences in another field. One only need purchase the appropriate ST set, and suddenly a Chief engineer in power systems can become a competent information systems analyst, allowing for blended solutions and multifaceted exploits.

By the time the final efforts of Dr. Lambert were finally made practical, inserting experiential perceptions into the human mind was no longer being evaluated for long-term or catastrophic snap-back effect [outside of: "Erilich Syndrome," or "The Avoidability Paradox," herein.]

With quick absorption time and a new "overlay framework' in place the 'final' structure was simply 'inserted' into the stream of treatment applications, those finally affected were, instead of numbering in the tens of thousands, numbered nearly in the millions. The final effect was not restricted to settlers, but half a generation of children suffered the effects of the improved delivery paradigm.

The ultimate effects were problematic for nearly two decades, Dr. Lambert never succeeded in 'correcting' the problem before his death. The sudden drop in revenues commercially made further independent research difficult carry out.

Suddenly, and for many years after, entire populations became what many would consider 'overly focused' spirituality in nearly every field.

Six major Commerical combines migrated to a new philosophy of egalitarianist humanism and philanthropy, which made them the object of exploitation at many levels [see: "Commerce under ST" and "When Profit no longer mattered" by T. Sikes.] Political leaders became focused on "cooperative harmony" and the "purging of systemic exploitation mechanisms" including the demise of the global banking monopoly [see: "Government divorced from Commerce" by M. Mars.] Even religious institutions began embracing an "anti-materialism" movement which unexpectedly became 'self-applied.'

The net effect of the ST distribution changed, or almost changed, most every aspect of the "globalist" community and led to the entire dissolution of the 'cabal hierarchy' which made them so powerful in the past. The resulting environment actually achieved the goal that Lambert sought, but the end of that road was a devastating disruption of the economies and social institutions which had evolved to cope with the human social condition. Six of the twelve colonies established during the "Later Expansion" period withdrew from "distributed governance" and losses in revenue exacerbated a major economic collapse of combine revenue.

After it was clear that the ST process was responsible, it was immediately halted, and while a return to the previous biophysical methodologies might have been an adequate response, the resentment about losing half a generation of people made it an unlikely prospect to pursue.

Recovery took two further generations to be born before the matter was considered a historical matter, and to this day, three colonies have retained the designation "Enlightened People's Unions" and there are at least two schools of training that embrace the principles originally disseminated during what they refer to as the "Rebirth of Reason."

The End

Thanks for your story!


You always make me think beyond the story line... and thats a good thing!
Johnny

a reply to: Maxmars

Asimov's psychohistory on pills. Great work, I enjoyed it . "Commercial" has a typo.

a reply to: Maxmars

A bio-engineered matrix where we ate pills and became hippies!

More like a super IV bag linked up to human consciousness, isn't that kind of what a body is anyways? Fluids and chemicals.

I really enjoyed that

Thanks for reading! I was kind of heading for a "scientists don't know every damned thing despite their insistence they do" message... and even a "good" result can work out to be a "bad" thing from time to time.

a reply to: Maxmars

Really well done that put me right in mind of some of Asimov's big picture stuff. Pretty good going for the short story format!

a reply to: Maxmars

I'll buy that for a dollar Bravo!

a reply to: Maxmars

That is a timely read and reminder of how technologies once considered sci-fi aren't that far from emerging.