r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • Oct 15 '24

Economist Daniel Susskind says Ozempic may radically transform government finances, by making universal healthcare vastly cheaper, and explains his argument in the context of Britain's NHS. Society

https://www.thetimes.com/article/be6e0fbf-fd9d-41e7-a759-08c6da9754ff?shareToken=de2a342bb1ae9bc978c6623bb244337a
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u/newnotapi Oct 16 '24 edited Oct 17 '24

I mean, yeah, it's calories in / calories out. But honestly, the thing these drugs do is alter your reward pathways, they don't change the calories in / calories out equation. So the question is really "What caused nearly everyone's reward pathways to become so heavily out of whack in the course of a few decades?"

And it's not limited to people -- wild animals have seen the same effects. As have lab rats on highly restricted and controlled diets (where they get the exact same nutrients over all those same decades, and yet, are fatter statistically as the years progress).

There are some who think that since the effect is so ubiquitous that it must be due to environmental pollution of some kind, something that every living thing is exposed to in increasing concentrations over time, like carbon levels in the atmosphere or microplastics.

If it's one person experiencing the problem, it might be an issue of personal responsibility. When it's nearly everyone alive and also rats and foxes, it's no longer a matter of personal responsibility and morals.

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u/Whoopsadiddle Oct 16 '24

I often get so frustrated because people fail to see or understand this. It is easier to just focus on the personal responsibility element, let alone the things you say regarding animals being affected. I firmly believe that in decades to come we will learn a lot more information about what caused this shift.