Skip to main content

Dystopian story where medicine is illegal


Set in the future, when all medicine is illegal, but technology has advanced to star-trek levels - most people live in free government provided acconmodations, and eat free food from public replicators, although it is only free as long as they agree to not have children.


A kid finds a crashed ambulance containing a laptop with a medical library and AI diagnostic software, so he starts teaching himself medicine, and then runs around curing people. Literally runs, in a few scenes. His interest in ill people is noticed, and he gets recruited to some sort of government team, whose purpose is to bring people comfort as they are dying and incidentally enforce the ban on medicine.


Eventually I think it ends badly - I vaguely remember him being executed at the end, although I might be mixing that up with another story.


There is an additional sub-plot about another kid whose parents were martian diplomats, who came to earth to negotiate something, but were killed in an "accident". He's trying to save enough money to pay for a flight back to mars. I remember a scene, of him selling some rare martian things at the side of the road, which is where the protagonist found him.


I also sort of remember the book having a green/blue cover, and the title "dark wings", but that is probably totally off as I've tried googling for variations on the name, and nothing came up, so it's probably called something completely different.


Any idea what book this was?



Answer



Dark Wing (1979), by Katherine MacLean and Carl West, I think.



enter image description here.


Taken from a GoodReads review:



...the real underlying (and somewhat dubious, but go with it) premise for this world is that doctors are now illegal. The generally held philosophy is that people get sick because they subconsciously don't want to stay in the world; this gets extended even to accidents. It's all mentally based, and if you resort to medicine or surgery or some artificial means of restoring your health, instead of doing it through your own willpower, you're sneered upon. If you help someone else, you've just committed a crime.


Travis knows all this, but when he stumbles across an ancient, abandoned ambulance, he can't resist inhaling all the forbidden knowledge it contains. Soon he's unwittingly diagnosing people from visible symptoms, and this naturally leads into doctoring them -- because some people secretly are willing to pay for illegal help. Add in his friendship with an off-world boy who has run afoul of corporate machinations to take advantage of his ambassador parents' deaths, and Travis finds himself in heaps of trouble.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Tolkien trying to say in this letter?

In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Was Galadriel's temptation of Boromir instrumental to his fall?

We know Galadriel tempted the members of the Fellowship, did she tempt Boromir with visions of taking the Ring and saving Gondor? In the books, Boromir willingly accepts the judgement of the council that the Ring should be destroyed, but after the meeting with Celeborn and Galadriel his personality seems to change. Was the temptation offered by Galadriel in some way responsible for Boromir's fall? Answer It's likely, but not certain I believe it is likely Galadriel tempted him with the ring, and in doing so re-ignited a pre-existing idea to take the ring, but to be clear lets break this down into three parts. Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir after setting off Boromir after being tempted Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir pleas for the ring to go to Minas Tirith, to help Gondor in its defense against Mordor. “ Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely...
Post a Comment
Read more