A Transhumanist “Minimum Effective Dose” for Humanitarian Needs – Article by Zach Richardson
Zach Richardson
In medicine, practitioners sometimes use the acronym MED, which stands for “minimum effective dose”. This is the smallest amount of a substance needed to provide a clinically significant response that is also statistically significant. Keep that term in mind for me.
In Mr. Arroyo’s paper, the number of people cited to be dying of hunger per day in his first source is 25,000, but I could not see how that source calculated this number. Checking the World Food Programme’s website, they did have some calculations, which suggested a daily number of hunger deaths between 8,000 and 19,000. [1]
This is still too many people dying of hunger, and a response is obviously urgently needed, but in contrast to Mr. Arroyo, I do not believe that shifting the world’s economy to communism from capitalism is the appropriate response. In fact, the countries which have the strongest market freedoms are not the ones that are starving.
Let’s take a look at where these hungry reside: Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.
What do these nations have in common? The inclusion of Yemen and Afghanistan tells us that it’s not an Africa problem. In fact, there are several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are not doing that badly, Botswana being a prime example, as was shown to me once in this (older) infographic. [2]
I’d like to share something with the reader called the “Index of Economic Freedom”, which ranks countries by 12 factors, which are broadly grouped into four categories [3]:
1. Rule of Law (property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity)
2. Government Size (tax burden, government spending, fiscal health)
3. Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom)
4. Market Openness (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom)
All countries were ranked on these 12 factors, and all countries were ranked in order, a straightforward numbered list from “best” to “worst”.
The countries at the top of this list all turned out to be countries where it is pretty nice to live, countries where people aren’t starving to death every day.
The reader may be surprised to find that the U.S. was not near the top of this list, was barely in the top septile, and was quite outclassed by the Nordic countries, which are often paradoxically paraded as socialist success stories. (The U.S. was ranked #25, while Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway were 9-12, respectively.) [4]
Where then, would we find our previously mentioned countries, the ones where the starving to death is happening? Well, out of 176 countries, Ethiopia was ranked #155, Sudan was ranked #173. Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen were so far removed from the above factors that there was not even enough data to rank them.
For this reason, in contrast to Mr. Arroyo, I would disagree that markets are the problem leading to poverty; I would suggest that they are more likely to be a solution.
But market development takes time – time that these dying people do not have, and time which we need to spend most effectively. Focusing our efforts on those smallest interventions (therefore to cause the least friction/resistance from those powers which could implement them, and also the least expensive) which would have the largest result would logically be the best course of action. What would these interventions be?
Well, in 2008, a group of Nobel-prize-winning economists were tasked with finding these “MED” approaches that would focus specifically on implementing what are referred to by the U.N. as the “SDGs”, or Sustainable Development Goals, prime among which was eradicating poverty and hunger. The question posed was: “Considering the world has finite resources, if an extra $75 billion were to be allocated for the SDGs, where would it be spent most effectively? Where would humanity get the best ‘bang for its buck’?”
These economists found an interesting solution: free vitamins. It turns out that most of these deaths of hunger were actually deaths of malnutrition, in particular Vitamin A, zinc, iodine, and iron. [5] It’s not just a lack of calories that these victims of hunger are suffering from, it’s a lack of nutrients. More interestingly, these economists noted this simple intervention would actually have a significant return on investment (ROI): deficiencies in these vitamins and nutrients cause lack of development in the hippocampus, affecting these children’s future capacity to contribute effectively to the economy.
In more recent congregations of these economic experts, other suggestions included investment in agricultural research, and even an increase in food production (despite the global food surplus, extra is still needed to offset the effects of climate change). They also suggest improving the economy by improving access to cell phones so these small-scale farmers have better access to markets to trade their products, and also buy cheap fertilizers, such as nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, and also significant public investment in producing local fertilizer plants, which could then sell fertilizer to farmers.
Another current solution comes again from the amazing technology of the cell phone. Reuters currently sends text messages to these small-scale farmers including growing advice, up-to-date and location-specific weather forecasts (!!), local price information, and information to access international commodities markets.
These economic interventions, some public and some private, could be considered the Minimum Effective Dose to both reduce death and improve cognitive function: two extremely Transhumanist goals – Transhumanist bang-for-your-buck.
One will note that we are gaining significant transhumanist benefits with an intervention that would cause much less friction (and is therefore more likely, and realistic) than overthrowing society, and which also carries much less risk.
Longevity and immortality are in our grasp, and it is true that the rich will first get these benefits. However, just like how in 1987’s Wall Street, even Gordon Gekko had a now-ridiculous-looking mini-TV accessible only to the ultra-wealthy, and how now even these poorest of the poor are benefiting from the rapid spread of the cell phone throughout global society, immortality technology will, too, spread to all who desire it, and if our goal is a humanitarian one, the MED is to bring markets to the countries that are starving.
Zach Richardson is the Director of Publication for the U.S. Transhumanist Party. Find out more about him here.
[1] Action Against Hunger et al. “Humanitarian organisations estimate one person dying of hunger every four seconds”. September 20, 2022. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/humanitarian-organisations-estimate-one-person-dying-hunger-every-four-seconds [2] “A Story of Two Neighbors: Botswana vs. Zimbabwe, Stats”. Reddit. March 31, 2018. https://www.reddit.com/r/Floathouse/comments/88gay9/a_story_of_two_neighbors_botswana_vs_zimbabwe/ [3] “The 12 Economic Freedoms: Policies for Lasting Progress and Prosperity”. The Heritage Foundation. 2023 Index of Economic Freedom. https://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2023/book/02_2023_IndexofEconomicFreedom_12-ECONOMIC-FREEDOMS.pdf [4] The Heritage Foundation. 2023 Index of Economic Freedom. Country Rankings. https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking [5] Copenhagen Consensus 2008 – Results. https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/cc08_results_final_0.pdf [6] “Third Copenhagen Consensus: Hunger and Malnutrition Assessment, Hoddinott Rosegrant Torero”. Copenhagen Consensus Center. https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/publication/third-copenhagen-consensus-hunger-and-malnutrition-assessment-hoddinott-rosegrant
2 thoughts on “A Transhumanist “Minimum Effective Dose” for Humanitarian Needs – Article by Zach Richardson”
Thank you for the thoughtful reply to my article or “paper”! I have a few comments which I will provide with the specific quotations from your article reply to mine.
1. “This is still too many people dying of hunger, and a response is obviously urgently needed, but in contrast to Mr. Arroyo, I do not believe that shifting the world’s economy to communism from capitalism is the appropriate response.”
– I would disagree with this wholeheartedly, the most outstanding example of Communism/Socialism combating hunger comes out of Burkina Faso, a West African nation, under the Marxist-Leninist Thomas Sankara (known as Africa’s Che Guevara). According to a former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food by the name of Jean Ziegler through their “one village, one grove” project. Sankara’s policies eradicated hunger in Burkina Faso. Unfortunately, he met his untimely end like many of his Communists/Socialists counterparts when he was assassinated to fulfill French Neo-colonialist and Capitalist ambitions and that of Blaise Compaore.
https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/16-2020-land-hunger/
2. “For this reason, in contrast to Mr. Arroyo, I would disagree that markets are the problem leading to poverty, I would suggest that they are more likely to be a solution.”
– Towards the notion that more markets correlate to less hunger. My contention would come from a global perspective; globally human civilization produces enough food to feed 10 billion people with a global population of merely 8 billion people while simultaneously wasting approximately US$1 trillion of wasted food which is enough to feed half of the world’s population. This disparity exists for many but among the most prominent is the market where consumers need the ability to pay to receive food like all other things necessary to human life. We need an economic system that does not prioritize profit but prioritizes human life; a true Transhumanist economy and a method of distribution that will create a global state of human flourishing! In other words a globally planned economy!
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241746569_We_Already_Grow_Enough_Food_for_10_Billion_People_and_Still_Can%27t_End_Hunger
https://www.foodengineeringmag.com/articles/97511-food-waste-in-the-supply-chain
3. “Longevity and immortality are in our grasp, and it is true that the rich will first get these benefits. However, just like how in 1987’s “Wall Street”, even Gordon Gekko had a now-ridiculous-looking mini-tv accessible only to the ultra-wealthy, and how now even these poorest of the poor are benefiting from the rapid spread of the cell phone throughout global society, immortality technology will too spread to all who desire it, and if our goal is a humanitarian one, the MED is to bring markets to the countries that are starving.”
– While I agree, Capitalism has proven its ability to get past expensive gadgets into the hands of the masses with time. This does not seem to be the case with everything. For example, according to a chart by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showing p changes since 2008, Hospital services are up 99.8%, College Tuition is up 64.4%, Child Cars is up 62.1%, Medical Care 57.2%, Food and Drinks 52.8%, Housing 48.3%, New Cars 28.9%, Furniture 17.2%, and Clothing 8.9%. While things like Software are down in price by 50.4%, Child Toys by 56.2%, and your examples of Mobile Phone is down 75.0% and TV’s are down 92.3%.
Mind you other estimates such as the Consumer Price Inflation (2000-2022), AEIdeas (1997-2017), and Our World Data (1997-2022) all show similar unfortunate trends of price increases. Therefore if our goal as Transhumanists is to keep people amused until their deaths while things of medical, educational, etc, calibers are still unaffordable via high prices, the market is doing a good job at that. On the opposite or more realistic end; If we as Transhumanists want to create a civilization where people of all types can flourish, have what they need to live and enjoy life as well as enjoy the benefits of life extension technology and subsequent immortality. We need a different approach my fellow Transhumanist!
https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/12ak6t7/change_in_hospital_prices_compared_to_other_us/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/inflation-chart-tracks-price-changes-us-goods-services/
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-century-price-changes-1997-to-2017/
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/price-changes-consumer-goods-services-united-states
– Lastly, this is a minor point in relation to the others but I would caution against labeling the Nordic countries as “Socialist” success stories. You might remember Social Democrats such as Bernie Sanders and AOC cited them as Socialist success stories as well nations however; the former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in his visit to the U.S.A stated: “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear: Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.”
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/the-myth-scandinavian-socialism
Zach, I would like to give both you and Luis a standing ovation for your eloquent, thoughtful, logical and data-driven articles.
Zach, your excellent point on the extremely cost-effective vitamin supplement program deserves more action, worldwide.
While preparing for a podcast with Dr. Sharif Rana, I came across a fervent and radical business startup champion, Professor Muhammad Yunus, who saw that poor children in his country of Bangladesh were not getting enough vitamins. So he and his company, Grameen Bank, created a joint venture with Dannon to provide yogurt packed with vitamins to the youth of Bangladesh.