Questions...

Robert

Robert

Robert

Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
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Location
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Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?

Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?

Do you believe in aliens?

Where do you think we came from?


Odd questions, but me and my good friend where just discussing these very points on the way home from another friends (we may have fought our way through a few bottles of wine beforehand).

I don't want any stupid replies. I'm not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist or a nut job and I'm not offering my own opinion. I just want to know what you think.

Again - we aren't a couple of nut jobs, we just had an interesting discussion.
 
Robert said:
Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?
Yes.

Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?
Yes.

Do you believe in aliens?
Yes, but any life form close enough we should have noticed by now. so not super natural smart aliens!

Where do you think we came from?
Bacteria -> Evolution over a LONG time. not God.
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Robert said:
Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?
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Unlikely, all of the targets for drugs I've seen have been developed with the intention of being as effective as possible. It's difficult enough as it is for them to get drugs to market so I don't think it makes much economic sense to try to market ineffective drugs as health authorities simply won't use them if they're too ineffective or too expensive.

Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?
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Possibly, though I'm sure they'd develop, patent and use any major advances since there'd no doubt be a lot of money in it, just as many power companies are investing in emerging technologies such as biofuel production.

Do you believe in aliens?
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I don't see why not in principle given the scale of the universe, though I haven't seen any convincing evidence of any contact.

Where do you think we came from?
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Monkeys.
 
Robert said:
Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?
Click to expand...

No since that wouldn't help them achieve competitive advantage. Also, as with most things, it would be almost impossible to cover up. Pharmaceutical companies do not research in isolation, but build their products on, and in conjunction with, academic research. There are too many people looking at the same problems with the same basic research for a company to risk someone else getting the product patented and to market first.

Robert said:
Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?
Click to expand...

See above

Robert said:
Do you believe in aliens?
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It's almost a statistical certainty, but that doesn't mean I'm certain. Besides, with the distances involved, I doubt we'll meet any soon.

Robert said:
Where do you think we came from?
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Not sure what the question is, you'll need to put it in context for me. If you mean humans and life on this planet in general, then I think it was fluke conditions of location and environment led to protein replication in the primordial ooze and nature took it from there.

If you mean, the bigger picture of the Universe itself, well, in the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.......
 
Good replies so far :)

You're correct with my last question Asprilla :)

Remember I offer none of my opinions, so just say what you think.
 
Robert said:
Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?
Click to expand...

Hard to say, problem is it takes up to and can be more than a decade to bring a drug to the market due to the number of trials and tests it has to go through before being deemed for human consumption. Although saying that, R + D for a particular drug can cost millions and millions of pounds and if they see that they won't make that money back due to it being aimed at curing a very rare disease, then they may well pull it. Probably wrong but that's the way I see it.

Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?
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Yes, although it may well be that there isn't a lot of advancement going on in the power industry as apart from nuclear fusion/fission (sp?) power, we've probably sussed most sources we can use. It's more of a case of are they witholding improvements to current systems because they'd cost too much to impliment? Probably.

Do you believe in aliens?
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Yes, I can't believe we're (all life on earth) the only life forms in our 14 billion year old universe.

Where do you think we came from?
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Not sure how to answer, do you mean evolutionarily? How life got to earth in the first place? or something else?
 
I should qualify my first two answers: the companies don't withhold advances, but naturally they steer their R&D budgets according to where they will make profits. E.g. up until recently very little work was done into Malaria immunisation and cure since it mainly affected the third world. However, now that this is beginning to change there has been a great deal of investment.

They don't withhold the advance, they just choose not to investigate the problem.
 
Robert said:
Do you think major pharmaceutical companies withhold certain cures to benefit their own profits?

Do you think power companies withhold major advances to maintain their profits?

Do you believe in aliens?

Where do you think we came from?
Click to expand...

Yes, they make more profit from treating than they ever would curing.

Of course they do.

For this planet to be the only one with life in the whole Universe would be unbelievable to me.

Sperm and an Egg.
 
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