Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

Did the Boomers learn to think big when we landed a man on the moon?

AI Overview

Yes, the Apollo program, culminating in landing a man on the moon, certainly spurred a generation, including those born in the post-war baby boom (often referred to as "Boomers"), to think big and pursue ambitious goals. The Space Race and the achievement of putting a human on the moon represented a significant turning point in human history, igniting a sense of possibility and inspiring a culture of innovation and ambition.

Here's why the Apollo program had a lasting impact on the mindset of the Boomer generation:

Technological Optimism:
The Apollo missions, from the launch of the first American satellite Ex1 to the lunar landing, were a testament to human ingenuity and the power of technology to achieve seemingly impossible feats. This fueled a sense of optimism about the future and the belief that ambitious goals were attainable.

Sense of National Pride and Unity:
The Apollo program united the nation behind a common goal and fostered a sense of national pride. The successful lunar landing was a major source of national pride and a symbol of American achievement.

Inspiring Future Generations:
The Apollo missions inspired a new generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), ultimately leading to advancements in various fields.

Focus on Innovation and Progress:
The program emphasized the importance of innovation and the pursuit of progress. The Boomer generation was raised in a culture that valued technological advancement and a belief that progress was inevitable and desirable.

Example of Human Potential:
The Apollo missions demonstrated that humans are capable of incredible feats when they set their minds to it. This fostered a sense of belief in human potential and the ability to overcome challenges.

In conclusion, the Apollo program served as a powerful catalyst for the Boomer generation to embrace a mindset of "thinking big" and pursuing ambitious goals. It ignited a passion for science, technology, and innovation, and inspired a belief in the potential for human achievement.

Generative AI is experimental.

[Higgenbotham]

Since 1971, the percentage of women who are sole bread winners has more than tripled, from 2 percent to 7 percent. We also know that many, many women now make more than their husbands.

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-tren ... -the-same/

[tim]

https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/ ... em-failing

DETERIORATING QUALITY OF CARE IN AMERICAN MEDICINE

My next question is whether, in addition to the reasons I gave above for the loss of trust, how much of it is also being driven by a deterioration in the quality of care in U.S hospitals?

I have over 15 years of experience reviewing law firms' medical malpractice cases. In my review of the medical records of Daisy Hillebrand and Kaley Fehr (the two girls in Texas who died of inept medical care, not measles), I found unprecedented missteps, errors, incompetence, and a lack of critical (or clinical) reasoning skills. The abysmal care I witnessed led me to question whether there has been a significant drop in the quality of care in the U.S.

Hypotheses As To Why The Quality Of Medical Care In The U.S Is Deteriorating

1. Widespread Cognitive Impairment In the Wake of the Covid mRNA Campaign (and Covid)

It should be evident that physicians, nurses, and nurse practitioners were among this country's most highly vaccinated subpopulations due to Biden’s Federal CMS mandates.

Just this week, a WSJ article highlighted the “millions of Americans,” both old and young, with new cognitive impairments due to “Long COVID” (which we know from what I bear witness to each day in my vaccine injury and Long COVID specialty practice—it is a euphemism for “Long Vax” - 70+% of my patients' issues started in temporal association with vaccination, not COVID).

In addition, as per AMD, “the COVID vaccines were sold with the most aggressive marketing campaign in history, using healthcare workers as the initial cohort to promote the vaccines since it would be easy to;

1) manipulate them into fully vaccinating

2) have the public trust in their endorsement

3) make them less likely to publicize the side effects of the shots

Because of this, doctors and nurses were some of the most highly vaccinated Americans, and in turn had some of the highest rates of injury.

This is important because cognitive impairment is one of the most common side effects of the COVID vaccines, something not only shown by the data but also in my patients - neurological and cognitive injuries are the rule. The data supporting this reality is overwhelming:

A recent study by Thorpe et al identified alarming increases in 86 adverse events related to brain function, behavior, and cognition following COVID-19 mRNA injection, and another study showed spike protein in the cerebral arteries of vaccinated individuals 17 months out.

AMD’s compilation of data showing the negative cognitive impacts from the mRNA vaccines adds even more disturbing data on the vaccine's impact on cognition.

In a post I wrote about an interview I did with a veteran ER/ICU nurse at The Ohio State University Medical Center (TOSUMC), she reported that many of the illnesses and/or disabilities sufferred by physicians in that system were described to her as being due to neurological issues - either overt neurological deficits or cognitive decline/impairment, and even dementia.

One study published in Nature (one of the top medical journals) reported that after mRNA vaccination, they found a 68% increase in depression, a 44% increase in anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, and somatoform disorders, a 93.4% increase in sleep disorders, a 77% decrease in schizophrenia, and a 32.8% decrease in bipolar disorder.

Another study analyzed individuals over 65 and found Covid vaccination increased the risk of mild cognitive impairment by 138% and the risk of Alzheimer’s by 23%, with smaller increases in vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease that the authors did not deem to be significant.

VAERS detected a massive spike in cognitive issues being reported to it after the COVID-19 vaccines hit the market.

Ed Dowd has repeatedly documented a significant increase in physical and cognitive disability throughout the adult population, beginning with the onset of the mRNA campaign:

Steve Kirsch was contacted by a whistleblower who reported there had been a 25-fold increase in sudden dementia at the nursing home where she works.

From Igor Chudov’s article on this topic:

I own a small business and deal with many people and other small businesses. Most provide reliable service, remember appointments, follow up on issues, and so on. I noticed that lately, some people have become less cognitively capable. They forget essential appointments, cannot concentrate, make crazy-stupid mistakes, and so on.

Igor Chudov also identified another dataset from the Netherlands, which further corroborated a massive cognitive decline:

The latest quarterly research update from the GOR Network shows that in the first quarter of 2023, there was a 24% increase in GP [general practitioner] visits related to memory and concentration problems among adults (age 25 years and older) compared to the same period in 2020.

More specifically, they found:
•No increase was observed in adults under 25 years old.
•A 31% increase was observed in those 24-44.
•A 40% increase was observed in those 45-74 years old.
• An 18% increase was observed in those over 75 years old.

2. Workforce Shortages In The Wake Of The mRNA Campaign

Numerous insurance company reports and studies of actuarial data on the vaccinated report a 37% lower life expectancy and a doubling of the risk of dying. Sun Life Financial’s US operations reported a surge in costly claims that caused stop-loss insurance benefits costs to spike in the fourth quarter.

A new study found massive increases in deaths from Covid-19 in association with increased vaccination among Western Countries by up to 1,275.0%

The Ethical Skeptic analysis of publicly available data finds that cancer diagnoses and expenditures began to skyrocket with the rollout of the mRNA campaign.

The insane number of predominantly young, actively employed Canadian doctors whose deaths have been tracked on social media (132 at last count, two years ago).

In my post on Ohio State University Medical Center, the nurse I interviewed reported that the new cancer center was running out of infusion suites and that cancer surgeries were being delayed due to the excess volume.

Jeff Childers wrote a recent post on cancer clusters reported in numerous and diverse geographic regions, workplaces, and within families. Industrial exposures cannot be blamed given the diversity of cancers and the clustering of different cancers within the same family. The most alarming clusters are occurring among groups of nurses and/or doctors in the same hospital.

More “real-world” evidence of the above comes from my interview with a veteran nurse colleague who has worked at OSUMC for decades. She reported:

An increasingly noticeable number of doctors, nurses, and staff have “died suddenly,” “died unexpectedly,” or have become disabled and ill from injuries and/or cancer. The youth and health of these employees have been increasingly remarked on amongst staff (not to mention the deluge of previously healthy and/or young patients that are now presenting with severe and/or atypical (for that age) illnesses. Remember, cancer used to be a disease of aging essentially.

The suspected role of the vaccines in most of the deaths is an open secret and a growing concern among staff there. Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) stopped emailing out obituaries of prominent or veteran employees when they died. Why do you ask? Because of the uncomfortably noticeable large number of them, which triggered comments by employees openly calling out the likelihood that the vaccines were a cause (i.e., they would point out the dates of the deceased’s vaccination and their death). Unsurprisingly, she also told me that OSUMC would quickly censor any posts of that nature (despite containing no foul language, personal attacks, or threats). From a text conversation we had:

“Yes, this is huge. Lots of internal cases of death and disabilities. They quit posting internal obits for staff. The comments underneath them showed that people knew why everyone was dropping dead for baffling reasons. So those went away.”

Several physicians (the most noticeable of them being super-specialists who cannot be easily replaced), besides dying, were also leaving due to disability or retiring due to unspecified health reasons.

She heard of a growing number of lawsuits by family members of these physicians against OSUMC for the mandates that led to their deaths or disabilities.

One lawsuit was filed by the widow of a physician who dropped dead suddenly. Interestingly, she demanded an autopsy with staining for spike protein, and the heart was found “loaded with spike.”

When physicians die suddenly, this creates a huge mess operationally because “open notes” in the electronic medical record (EMR) can’t be closed, and the chronic, ongoing care of large numbers of often long-time or highly active patients becomes disrupted. In her words, “dealing with the practice of a doc who died is a mess - dealing with open notes, ongoing patient care, patient calls, and maintaining plans of care.”

Many of the disabilities and deaths of physicians were discovered by this nurse while she was following up on notes that were “left open” in the EMR. The staff would then tell her about the injury, death, or disability of the health care provider who started the note. Further, adding the “abandoned” patient panel to healthier and still working physicians in that specialty was causing further strains.

Cancers are exploding at OSUMC, causing massive strain on oncology services, particularly glioblastomas in the brain, as well as in the spine. Also, case managers for many cancer patients stated that they were not retiring due to the volume of patients in need.

Even worse, cancers are being missed at high rates, given that the “index of suspicion” in younger patients is not appropriately high enough. As a result, doctors are missing cancers, as evidenced by retrospectively “obvious” signs and symptoms in the record.

Applications for both short and long-term disability have risen so much that they have created backlogs and delays that staff have noticed and are more openly talking about. The often young ages of the staff applying for disability have not gone unnoticed either.

She knows of several colleagues who are either declining or dying from cancer but are forcing themselves to work to provide for their families.

In a recent conversation with A Midwestern Doctor, they reminded me that we both know numerous doctors who have become impaired or disabled from the COVID vaccines, many of whom then had to enter early retirement, or sadly, died prematurely from a vaccine side effect. Many doctors are still in denial about this.

3. Physician, NP, and Nurse “Burnout” Rates Are Increasing

Physician “burnout” rates increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 38.2% in 2020 to 62.8% in 2021. This spike marked an all-time high and ended a previous six-year decline in burnout rates.

4. Attrition Of Physicians From The Workforce

The implications of the rising cognitive issues, deaths, and burnout are that they are leading to an increased physician attrition rate in the United States. Lo and behold:

Job Changes and Retirement: A 2022 survey found that 43% of physicians changed jobs during the pandemic, 8% retired, and 3% left medicine for non-clinical careers—much higher than typical annual turnover rates of 6–7%.

Annual Attrition Trends: Before the pandemic, annual physician turnover increased from 5.3% in 2010 to 7.6% in 2018—a 43% increase. In 2022, 40% of U.S. physicians reported an intention to leave their current job within the next two years. This figure decreased slightly to just over a third (approximately 33–35%) in 2023 but is still historically high.

Specialty and Demographic Variation: The increase in attrition has not been uniform across all specialties or demographics. For example, primary care and rural practice have seen sharp declines in new entrants, and older physicians (65+) are retiring at higher rates.

5. Attrition of Nurses From The Workforce
If you thought the rising attrition rates of doctors were bad, it gets way worse with the nurses. Since the onset of COVID-19, the annual nurse attrition (turnover) rate in the U.S. has also increased significantly. The numbers are eye-popping - multiple studies and workforce reports have documented a sharp rise in both departures and nurses’ intentions to leave the profession.

During the pandemic, about 100,000 registered nurses left the workforce in two years, primarily due to stress, burnout, and retirement.

The psychological impact of the pandemic included increased workload, exposure to critical illness and death, and emotional exhaustion.

**Projections indicate the situation may worsen: If current trends continue, nearly 900,000 RNs (about one-fifth of the U.S. nursing workforce) are expected to leave the profession by 2027.

One-fifth of the U.S. nursing workforce is expected to leave the profession in the next two years? We have to stay out of the hospitals, folks.

6. Increases in “Sentinel Events” Within Hospitals
Based on the above data showing that healthcare providers likely suffered some of the highest rates of cognitive impairment, neurological conditions, cancers, and sudden deaths, which then caused skyrocketing burnout and massive workforce departures, it should come as no surprise that there is a disturbing data trend regarding “sentinel events” in hospitals. First, let’s go over the definition of a sentinel event:

A “sentinel event” is an unexpected occurrence in a healthcare setting that results in:

Death

Permanent harm (e.g., loss of limb or function)

Severe temporary harm (e.g., significant disability or disfigurement)

These events are unrelated to the natural course of the patient’s illness and are often caused by major mistakes or negligence by healthcare providers. Sentinel events are closely investigated by healthcare regulatory authorities to identify root causes and implement corrective actions to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

7. Impacts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies

8. The Proliferation Of Lower-Cost, Less Experienced Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

9. Expansion Of Standardized Treatment Protocols At The Expense Of Critical Thinking Skills
Before Covid and my excommunication from the medical system, I loved my career - I was an “intensivist” running ICUs, challenged by the “sickest of the sick,” which required me to find new therapies or approaches when traditional treatments were failing. I was a pioneer in developing and employing specific innovations in my specialty which led me to national and sometimes international acclaim - specifically with the use of therapeutic hypothermia for cardiac arrest, physician performed bedside ultrasonography for rapid identification of organ failure states, and the use of IV vitamin C, thiamine and corticosteroids in sepsis (the Marik protocol).

Beyond that, if someone was in a complete cardiovascular collapse, I could call for emergent infusions of methylene blue, I could use high-dose steroids, I could use Marik’s protocol in non-sepsis conditions, I could use thrombolytics empirically in emergencies, etc.. I did the best I could with often obscured, incomplete, and shifting information as to the actual driver of illness in a crashing patient. I did things without massive randomized controlled trials to support my approach. I could be a “cowboy” when a clinical situation demanded it.

What started to worry me in COVID is that Paul and I would get consulted by family members of severely ill COVID-19 patients who were in a hospital (until we started refusing them due to futility). Over and over we observed cases where the doctors would not “change what they were doing” - they would not try empiric higher dose steroids, not try blood thinners in states of clear hypercoagulability, not add high dose ivermectin in failing cases, not try high-dose IV Vitamin C, not try fluvoxamine or anti-androgen therapy (all beneficial in Covid).

I was shocked that they were sticking to the same lame protocol of low-dose dexamethasone, remdesivir, etc in the face of a deteriorating patient. I could not believe our nation's doctors had stopped doctoring and were instead cowed into submission. It was clear that they were being restricted by heads of hospital committees, pharmacists, and bureaucrats who kept calling for “standardization of treatment approaches” - brazenly oblivious that illnesses and patients are not standardized, as they tend to be more often unique than similar.

I also hypothesize that the weaponized medical boards, societies, and agencies that persecuted outpatient COVID-19 doctors for trying off-label treatments have similarly impacted the psyche of hospital doctors, creating renewed reluctance to treat someone “off-label” or “without sufficient evidence.” I have to admit, though, that the one “bright spot” in the two “measles deaths” is when the doctors decided to treat Daisy with IVIG based on a solid rationale but minimal clinical evidence. So, the spirit for that kind of doctoring still lives, but is becoming rarer, I fear.

I conclude this section with a comment from a reader of the above:

fuzzi: Thorough and relevant. I work with residents and fellows. We have some top notch physicians, and then we have the whiners, complainers, those who can't handle feedback because it's "toxic". Professionalism is lacking, late or no shows to required lectures, scheduled outpatient clinic time, no communication if the resident has decided to not come. Core teaching faculty risk being interrogated by the GME or system higher ups if they try to enforce the rules. One physician told me that he no longer tries to "think outside the box" as he was reprimanded for not following the hospital's protocols. And there's no "right to try". I know a cancer patient who has been doing everything he has been told, whether pharma or chemo or radiation, and nothing is working. He wanted to try Fenbendazole and DMSO, anything at this point because he's dying. The physicians overseeing his treatment won't consider anything because it's not being proven through extensive clinical trials. He's DYING, riddled with cancer, but they're harnessed to protocols and will not consider anything but more of the same useless treatments.

I have lost respect and trust and will be retiring soon. I cannot work with physicians who won't help those who need it most.

10. Corruption And Distortion Of “Evidence-Based Medicine” and The Religious Adherence To Randomized Controlled Trial Data.

[Higgenbotham]

It's good to see that the Archdruid is back to talking about the new dark age.
https://www.ecosophia.net/lords-of-the-fall/

Also, after a few years of sporadic posting, Xray Mike is back in full force this year at Collapse of Industrial Civilization.
https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/

[Higgenbotham]

The Toxic Triad: How Modern Pollutants Are Corrupting Human DNA

In the coming century, humanity may face an existential threat not from war or natural disasters, but from the gradual decay of our genetic integrity. A toxic triad of radiation, PFAS, and microplastics/nanoplastics is silently compromising human DNA, with consequences that could culminate in mutational meltdown and eventual extinction by 2150 (Zhang et al., 2024). This insidious crisis operates on a timescale beyond typical political or environmental concerns, making it one of the most underappreciated—yet potentially irreversible—dangers to our species.

Radiation’s Lingering Scourge

Every human alive today carries traces of radioactive isotopes like strontium-90 and cesium-137 in their bodies – a permanent legacy of over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted since 1945 (UNSCEAR, 2008). While these global background levels are low, they form an invisible baseline of contamination that compounds the dangers of acute radiation exposure near disaster sites like Chernobyl and Fukushima, where chronic exposure has been shown to increase mutation rates by 1.5-3 times (ICRP, 2020).

Studies of wildlife in exclusion zones reveal devastating biological consequences: rodents exhibit 40% smaller litters (Mousseau et al., 2014), while birds suffer from altered brain development and reduced lifespans (Møller et al., 2012). If human populations are subjected to similar conditions – whether through nuclear accidents, waste leaks, or prolonged exposure in contaminated regions – the accumulation of cancerous mutations, immune dysfunction, and infertility could render entire communities biologically unviable (Dubrova et al., 1996).

Even if we avoid the consequences of a nuclear exchange, the specter of abandoned nuclear infrastructure in a post-collapse world will haunt future generations eking out an existence littered with decaying reactors, unsecured waste repositories, and forgotten meltdown sites that continue to seep radiation into ecosystems unchecked. Without maintenance, spent fuel pools could boil dry, triggering new fires and releases of cesium-137, strontium-90, and plutonium – isotopes with half-lives spanning centuries (EPA, 2024). The ruins of nuclear power plants, once symbols of technological progress, may become persistent death zones, forcing survivors into a permanent state of nomadic avoidance.

PFAS: The Indestructible Genetic Saboteurs

The world is facing a silent reproductive crisis driven by “forever chemicals” (PFAS), which contaminate 99% of human blood globally through food packaging, non-stick cookware, and even pesticide-treated crops like soy and peas (Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, 2021; Calafat et al., 2007;Sonnenberg et al., 2023). Peer-reviewed research reveals these chemicals are catastrophic to human reproduction: sperm counts have plummeted by 50% worldwide since 1970 due to PFAS disruption of testosterone synthesis (Levine et al., 2022), while women’s ovarian reserves have dropped by 40%, with exposed populations suffering triple the rate of birth defects (Trasande et al., 2024). Most alarmingly, PFAS permanently alter human biology by binding directly to sperm DNA, suggesting their mutagenic effects may cascade through generations (NIH, 2023). The crisis is amplified by modern agriculture – pesticides used on legumes like peas chemically synergize with PFAS to worsen reproductive damage (Minnesota Legislative Reference Library 2025), while bioaccumulation means a single PFAS-contaminated fish can carry 100 times the “safe” exposure limit (Barbo et al. 2023, 115165). Unlike conventional toxins that eventually break down, PFAS persist for millennia in the environment and human bodies, creating an ever-growing burden of genetic corruption passed from parents to children (Cousins et al., 2022). This intergenerational poisoning represents one of the most insidious public health threats in history, as each new generation inherits a greater toxic load than the last (Trasande et al., 2024).

Microplastics: The Invisible Genetic Invaders

Microplastics are silently infiltrating our bodies—and the consequences are terrifying. Emerging research reveals these tiny plastic particles, now found in human blood (Leslie et al. 2022), organs, and even unborn babies (Ragusa et al. 2022), trigger DNA damage and oxidative stress (Yang et al. 2022), sharply increasing risks for cancers of the liver, lungs, and colon. Once ingested or inhaled, they migrate to vital organs, causing chronic inflammation and cellular dysfunction (Deng et al. 2021)—corroding the liver’s ability to detoxify and the kidneys’ capacity to filter. Even more alarming, microplastics breach the blood-brain barrier (Shrivastava 2022), disrupting neural pathways and potentially accelerating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Their chemical additives—phthalates, BPA, and heavy metals—wreak havoc on hormones (Vandenberg et al. 2023), linked to plummeting fertility rates, childhood developmental disorders, and metabolic collapse. Worse yet, they may cripple immune defenses (Facciolà et al. 2023), leaving the body vulnerable to pathogens and chronic illness. With microplastics contaminating everything from seafood to drinking water (WHO 2022), this isn’t a future threat—it’s a full-blown public health emergency.

The most alarming discovery about microplastics isn’t just what they’re doing to us—it’s what they might do to our descendants. Groundbreaking animal research reveals that prenatal exposure to microplastics causes a 28% increase in germline DNA damage (p<0.01) and induces transgenerational epigenetic changes that persist for three generations (Zhang et al. 2023). These microscopic invaders don’t just harm exposed individuals—they appear capable of rewriting the genetic legacy of entire lineages. These changes occurred at exposure levels already detected in human placentas (Ragusa et al. 2022). Though human impacts remain unproven, the mouse models present a chilling warning: we may be conducting an uncontrolled experiment on the future of our species.

Synergistic Collapse: The Road to Mutational Meltdown

Individually, each of these threats is concerning. Together, they create a feedback loop of genetic degradation that could push humanity past a point of no return. isolated populations—whether due to climate collapse, societal fragmentation, or radiation-contaminated “dead zones”—may experience mutational meltdown. This phenomenon, observed in critically endangered species like the vaquita porpoise, occurs when harmful mutations accumulate faster than natural selection can eliminate them (Robinson et al., 2022). Theoretical models (e.g., Lynch et al., 2021) suggest that small, isolated populations may face long-term risks from mutation accumulation.

In a post-collapse world, small bands of human survivors—poisoned by the lingering toxins of our fallen civilization and stripped of modern medicine—could face a genetic death spiral. As radiation, PFAS, and heavy metals ravage their DNA, collapsing populations below 1,000 would trigger a catastrophic feedback loop: each generation more inbred than the last, accumulating debilitating mutations until fertility crashes below replacement levels. This ‘mutational meltdown’—observed in Chernobyl’s wolves and near-extinct species like the vaquita porpoise—could render pockets of humanity biologically non-viable within 10 generations (Lynch et al., 2021; Kardos et al., 2021). The survivors’ only hope? Ancient strategies of strict exogamy and ruthless culling of the genetically compromised—if they can organize such measures amidst the chaos.

Unlike sudden extinction events (asteroid impacts, nuclear war), genetic erosion is a slow, invisible crisis—one that unfolds across generations (Zhang et al., 2024). Early symptoms—rising infertility, escalating cancer rates, and increased birth defects—may be dismissed as isolated public health issues (Trasande et al., 2024). But these are the warning signs of a deeper collapse. By the time the broader pattern becomes undeniable, the toxic triad of radiation, PFAS, and microplastics may have already pushed humanity into an irreversible decline (Levine et al., 2022). The very mechanisms that once ensured our survival—adaptation and genetic diversity—could be rendered obsolete by the cumulative weight of our own pollution.

https://collapseofindustrialcivilizatio ... ur-future/

The problem if the wise were to somehow get control of decision making at this time is that the position industrial civilization currently finds itself in is not a good one for the wise to grapple with. People with wisdom are good at keeping a civilization on the correct path but not so good at knowing what to do with it once it has deviated from that path for a long time. An example of that might be the question of whether the world should have gone down the path of R&D and manufacturing of synthetic chemicals. The wise probably would have determined not go down that path, but in this industrial civilization they weren’t in any position of authority to determine whether that was going to be done; the intelligent (at the approximate level of the 97th Percentile, but not the highest level) were. Now that we have gone down that path, the wise probably can’t help us.

Third generation: (born around 2015 plus or minus a few more years) Now going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects are now quite noticeable and influence the culture and economy to a great extent. There are lots more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults compared to generations born before World War II, so many in fact that an acronym to describe this phenomenon is thought to be needed, LGBT. It is rare for a child not to have some kind of disorder. Disorders become even more severe; for example whereas many children born in 1960 may have been a bit geeky, now many are severely autistic. The birth rate for this generation takes a dramatic fall to less than half of the birthrate of the generation born before World War II.
Fourth generation: (born around 2045 plus or minus a few more years) Now really going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects in the mainstream American culture are now so severe that fertility and lifespan are affected to the point that it is evident mainstream culture is no longer viable. In most cases, disorders are so severe as to be irreversible and in many cases untreatable.

It's going way out on a limb to say all this about the effects on the upcoming generations, but what has been done is downright unwise, stupid and dangerous. My conclusion 7 years ago was that:

Life during the coming dark age will be similar to the last dark age but worse due to environmental damage and pollution.

However, the problem is the hamster wheel keeps being spun at maximum speed and, therefore, the damage keeps piling up.

I'll be reading all the references Xray Mike cited.