I wrote following email to an healthcare institute in Switzerland to ask a question about its job opening (mathematical modeling software for infectious disease dynamics) on 23. March, 2021:
Dear …
I couldn’t reach you by phone today. I have some questions about your job opening.
Note: I applied for the job yesterday online, but the question is still motivation for me, as I tried to explain below.
I think, as an experienced software engineer, I have all the necessary skills and experience (in the technical sense) for developing such multi-faceted technical models. The question for me is rather the motivation.
My motivation would be finding permanent (sustainable) solutions to dangerous infectious diseases. Sustainable solution means for me, in most cases, local solutions related with the social and biological environment, including lifestyle and nourishment of people; not technological solutions imposed or controlled externally!
If one really needs technological solutions (like well tested vaccines) in some cases, the information required for these solutions should openly be published and shared; not monopolized with mechanisms like patents.
External (i.e. imported, adopted) technological solutions can only be justified temporarily during the transition period, until a sustainable and self-sufficient local solution is established.
In other words, preventive “public healthcare” instead of “industrial healthcare” whenever and wherever possible.
But there is a problem here: Healthcare industry (like industrial agriculture) is not interested in sustainable local solutions because there is no money in it. No external control or manipulation means no money.
In January 2021, I completed writing (the first version of) my PhD thesis in economy & ecology: Why does mainstream (neoclassical) economics ignore ecology?
In case you find time and interest, I would recommend you to read A (intro) and B (conclusions) before diving into the details of other chapters.
Some health-related sections in my thesis are (related pictures are attached below):
- Parasitic Earnings that steal wealth from local communities and future generations
- Reducing healthcare to industrial healthcare (e.g. by ignoring the importance of environmental factors)
- Ecosystem Mutilation & Patching Business as perpetual money machine
- Curing symptoms instead of diseases
- Patent as parasitic institution (i.e. socialization of investments, privatization of profits)
My question:
What do you think about this dilemma in the context of your project? Sustainable solutions or profitable solutions? What is the end goal of your project?
Continue reading