 |
| Isaac Asimov |
In 1976, at
the peak of the pessimistic forecasts about the catastrophic rise in global
population, foreseen by the first report of the Club of Rome (1972), Isaac
Asimov published a science fiction short story (The
winnowing), which suggested a (highly unethical) way to stop
this catastrophic increase in population. This is the summary of the story:
In 2005, the unstoppable population growth causes famine
in the third world countries. To contain it, the world
authorities (the UN), controlled by the developed world, decide to apply a
triage to the world population. To do this, a scientist (who does not want to
do it, but is threatened with reprisals against his family) is ordered to
develop a protein, poisonous for 70% of the population, but harmless for the remainder,
depending on each individual DNA, so that its effects will be dramatic, but
random. The protein will be introduced in the food sent to alleviate famines, so
as to bring the world population down to more manageable levels. The project is
not applied exactly as planned, because the biologist who must develop the
protein gives it to eat to the world leaders without their knowing, so that 70%
of them will die. As the protein has been adapted to the scientist’s DNA, by
eating it he commits suicide, thus escaping the consequences of what he has
done.
