The second of my thoughts this week:
How well do the Charity organisations do in a World with the 'Wave? What with Medical Ultratech, the various medical research funds would be in a tissy. Disaster relief would probably be much easier, with portable and powerful rescue equipment and sensors.
The ones I'm most uncertain about are the various 'Wish granting' groups for disabled and terminally ill people. Surely the benifits of 'Wavetech would cause something of a schism in public thinking. On the one hand, 'Wavetech and biomoding could eliminate the need for them (if, of course, the 'Danes get over the knee jerk 'Wave scare). On the other hand, some of the requests could get really outlandish (Visit the South Pole? Easy! Have a tropical holiday there... Slightly more tricky.)
Thoughts?
We've already established the Blue Blazer / Nikaido Foundation initiative to provide temporary housing as part of disaster relief. (Considering the quality of the converted-cargo-container housing modules, they may end up becoming permanent housing in areas where shantytowns existed before the disaster... and that's all right with the Nikaido Foundation.) My original idea for that was to equip a few of the cargo containers as fully-Danetech field surgeries, so that the Medecins Sans Frontieres doctors would have someplace to work. Adding in your suggestion of Fentech sensors, I suspect we've got disaster relief covered.
As for biomodification as medical treatment, I can see the terminally ill self-selecting into two groups - the ones who would literally rather die than be biomodded, and the ones who'll trade their homes on Earth for a few more decades of life. The first group might or might not accept a "wish" made true by handwavium (depending on why they refused a biomod); the latter group wouldn't need one.
(And I wouldn't expect the Danes to get over their "knee-jerk" reaction any time soon. Some people are still afraid of HIV, despite over two decades of education and at least a half-decade of availability of a treatment.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
As I may have already mentioned, the Blue Blazers are everywhere. After the first appearance of the Jet Car, they begin showing up wherever good needs to be done. Not just the crew of WW1, but a collection of people from across the world (although most notably in North America and Europe) who wear the blaze. The Cavaliers themselves have been at a number of disasters, some 'Wavium related and some not, but given that anyone can be a Blue Blazer or a member of the Global Frequency, if there is some charity that needs to be done, there is an increasing chance as time goes by that a number of people working that charity will be affiliated with the Banzai Institute. This includes not only natural or man-made disasters, but also charity functions of both the one-time (charity concerts,etc.) and long-term (soup kitchens, literacy programs, etc.) frequency.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."