Book Review – Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy (Is it true that modern medicine has not increased entropy?)

Modern medicine has contributed greatly to extending human life and reducing suffering from disease, and has promoted order rather than social disorder. Therefore, the claim that modern medicine has unnecessarily increased entropy is not valid.

 

Humans have long dreamed of organs that run permanently without energy input. If such an organ could be invented, it would solve humanity’s long-standing energy problem. However, until now, no such permanent organ has ever been invented. This is because it violates a scientific principle called the law of entropy. Entropy is a measure of how disorganized something is.
According to the law of entropy, all matter and energy can only change from a useful state to a useless state, from an ordered state to a disordered state. Jeremy  Rifkin, a world-renowned American economist, extends this scientific principle to society. He argues that society has become more disorganized and chaotic over the past 200 years, not less, as science and technology have advanced. He even argues that modern medicine has unnecessarily increased entropy. So, has modern medicine really increased social disorder by unnecessarily consuming energy? Should humanity stop further medical advances and return to a time before modern medicine? I don’t think so.
First, modern medicine has dramatically increased human lifespan. In Korea, we have a special birthday custom called hwanbap. For people in the Joseon Dynasty, when the average life expectancy was less than 40 years old, living past 60 was a great milestone and was celebrated with wild rice and silk clothes. Today, however, the celebration has shrunk to a small family affair, as life expectancy has increased and 60 years is no longer considered a long life. According to the National Statistics Portal, the average life expectancy of South Koreans has steadily increased from 65.5 years in 1970 to 81.94 years in 2013. In just 30 years, humans have added 15 years to their lives. This increase in life expectancy has given people a sense of psychological security by alleviating the fear of dying at any moment.
The authors counter that modern medicine has little to do with this increase in life expectancy. They point to improved sanitation and nutrition as the main contributing factors. However, research shows that the biggest contributor to the increase in life expectancy in South Korea has been the reduction in deaths from tuberculosis among young adults due to modern medicine. First and foremost, TB vaccinations have reduced the number of people who contract the disease in the first place. In addition, in the past, when there were no effective drugs to treat TB, the treatment was primitive, such as breathing fresh air, but today it can be cured in most cases by simply taking anti-TB drugs. Both vaccinations and medications are products of modern medicine, and it’s clear that life expectancy has increased because of them.
Also, the fact that kings of the Joseon Dynasty, who ate better food and lived in cleaner palaces than we do today, lived to only 46 years of age suggests that improved sanitation and nutrition alone do not fully explain the increase. Furthermore, healthy life expectancy, which is not just life expectancy but the number of years of healthy life excluding periods of illness or injury, increased from 71 years in 2007 to 73 years in 2012, a rise of just five years. This is not to say that 2007 was a hygienically or nutritionally poorer year than 2012. This also proves that modern medicine is developing rapidly every moment and has a great impact on our increasing lifespan.

Secondly, with the development of modern medicine, the suffering from diseases has also been greatly reduced. Let’s take the case of Hansen’s disease as an example. Hansen’s disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by a fungus that causes eyebrows to fall out and skin and muscles to break down, and has long been shunned and maligned by many people. People with Hansen’s disease were called lepers, socially ostracized, and quarantined on an island called Sorokdo, where they were not allowed to live as individuals. The disease was not only physically painful, but also emotionally devastating. Today, however, if Hansen’s disease is detected and treated early, it can be cured in a short period of time and without any after-effects. Modern medicine has advanced to the point that 99.99% of the bacteria in the body can be killed by taking a drug called rifampicin. In addition, through research on Hansen’s disease, misunderstandings and prejudices caused by ignorance have been dispelled, allowing patients with Hansen’s disease to lead normal social lives. The development of modern medicine has enlightened the people and freed them from primitive fears, reducing social chaos and disorder, and has laid the foundation for patients to lead normal social lives.
The author counters that therapeutic medicine has done little to eliminate major diseases that kill. He points out that the elimination of the 11 major plagues in the United States predates the introduction of medical treatments, which he attributes to improved sanitation. However, given that this article was written in 1980, before the development of the modern healthcare industry, it’s hard to compare it to the dazzling achievements of modern medicine. Furthermore, even in the most trivial cases of people going to the doctor when they’re sick, even if it’s not necessarily a life-threatening illness, modern medicine plays a huge role in reducing suffering.
In addition to this, modern medicine has become an indispensable part of today’s society, helping people overcome physical disabilities, both congenital and acquired. The development of medicine has contributed greatly to reducing mental and physical suffering, and thus, rather than increasing entropy, it has decreased entropy by reducing mental and physical disorganization and chaos. If we were to forcibly stop these advances in modern medicine and return to the primitive societies of the past, it would be a path of great social disruption and social disorder.
The author argues that modern medicine is bound to increase entropy for a number of reasons. However, these arguments are easily refuted. The first problem is that too much energy and resources go into the healthcare industry. They argue that the plethora of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic devices is causing healthcare costs per patient to explode. However, whenever new technology is introduced, a temporary increase in costs is inevitable. This may have been a valid argument in the United States in the 1980s, when the national healthcare system was poor, but it is no longer valid in today’s developed countries with organized healthcare systems. This is because countries recognize the importance of modern healthcare and ensure that their citizens have access to it as a welfare benefit.
The author also cites “treatment-induced” diseases as a problem with modern healthcare. Doctors perform unnecessary surgeries or prescribe medications that lead to bigger problems for patients. However, this is a matter of ethics for each individual doctor. Moreover, in today’s age of internet communities and social media, patients can form a network of networks that can naturally check doctors. There are also ways to report overtreatment directly to the health center where the hospital is located. Doctors no longer have any choice but to treat patients with care.
Contrary to the author’s fears, modern medicine is functioning better than ever and must continue to evolve. The counterargument is that modern medicine requires a lot of energy and has greatly increased entropy, but this simply shows that modern medicine is as important as it is today. On the contrary, if we imagine a time without modern medicine, there would be even more chaos and disorder than there is today. So instead of worrying about the entropy that modern healthcare creates, it would be wise to look for ways to make it work for more people.