Pet Peeves About Sci-Fi #001
You've ever seen a show or read a book where as an example of what doctors can/can't do in some futuristic society is cure the common cold? (The most recent example I can think of is the Doctor Who episode "Dalek", where Henry's Statten's company has apparently worked out a cure, but weren't going to release it to the public, preferring instead to simply sell medications based on the cure that didn't actually cure [or something like that, I'm not even sure I'm remembering the right program].)
I hate that. There really is no such thing as "the common cold," just "a common cold." Colds aren't caused by one virus, but rather many different viruses that all happen to produce the same symptoms. In theory, you never get the same cold twice. Heck, commercials for over-the-counter medications get it right, and those commercials are supposed to be aimed at everyone, including ignorant people. But sci-fi? There are shows that love being scientfically accurate when it comes to spaceships and time travel and light-speed and alien life and whatever, but they can't get one relatively simple fact of biology correct.
It's horribly lazy writing, which is what offends me most of all. Everyone knows what a cold is, everyone knows there's no "set" cure for it. But honestly, think about it - if there was a "cure" for "the" common cold, well then, it would be the supercure, wouldn't it? We're talking about a medicine that could wipe out hundreds of different viruses, so why would it only cure the common cold? Why not chicken pox, the flu, herpes, or AIDS?
I'm sure because that require imagination, and effort (just like I won't start doing research on whether a cure for the cold really would be effective against AIDS, but I'm not getting paid for this anyway).
I hate that. There really is no such thing as "the common cold," just "a common cold." Colds aren't caused by one virus, but rather many different viruses that all happen to produce the same symptoms. In theory, you never get the same cold twice. Heck, commercials for over-the-counter medications get it right, and those commercials are supposed to be aimed at everyone, including ignorant people. But sci-fi? There are shows that love being scientfically accurate when it comes to spaceships and time travel and light-speed and alien life and whatever, but they can't get one relatively simple fact of biology correct.
It's horribly lazy writing, which is what offends me most of all. Everyone knows what a cold is, everyone knows there's no "set" cure for it. But honestly, think about it - if there was a "cure" for "the" common cold, well then, it would be the supercure, wouldn't it? We're talking about a medicine that could wipe out hundreds of different viruses, so why would it only cure the common cold? Why not chicken pox, the flu, herpes, or AIDS?
I'm sure because that require imagination, and effort (just like I won't start doing research on whether a cure for the cold really would be effective against AIDS, but I'm not getting paid for this anyway).