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Charlie Stross: an alternative explanation for the uptick in road deaths

by andystow
Tue, Jul 16, 2024 15:45
11

I found this nugget interesting. Charlie Stross is a British sci-fi author, but also a generally astute commentator on technology and politics on his blog. Here he suggests mass cognitive damage from COVID-19 as one of the causes.

We're surrounded by the signs of pervasive low-level brain damage on every side. Having come through an acute pandemic wave of COVID19 in 2020, governments everywhere now seem to be in denial that the pandemic is ongoing—and we have vaccines that diminish the acute impact of the virus from life-threatening to merely "a bad cold". But it's not a bad cold! It causes widespread inflammation throughout the lining of the blood vessels, including the brain's circulatory system. Cognitive damage is apparent and is one of the symptoms of long COVID: it causes symptoms ranging from stroke and Parkinsonism to dyscalcula and even dementia. If you've noticed poor, erratic, or angry driving in the past couple of years, road manners are one of the more evident signs of what's going on. Cars are a proxy for bodies in public space and elderly drivers are notoriously bad; we're now seeing a lot of aggressive, oblivious, and inexplicably bad driving behaviour routinely, and an uptick in accident rates. There may be other less obvious side-effects: I suspect the angry political discourse is to some extent inflamed by the brain inflammation of the folks who think COVID19 is over.

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11 comments

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slc | 4 months ago
0 likes

Call me miserable, but I don't think that astute commentators (a) make such claims without even pointing to evidence, or (b) believe that a 'north polar ice sheet' exists. I guess arctic sea ice is what is meant for b, but the difference between sea ice and ice sheets is akin to the difference between butterflies and whales.

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brooksby | 4 months ago
1 like

Well, as I always said about Covid: at least it didn't turn into a Rage epidemic or the zombie apocalypse… 

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hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 4 months ago
5 likes

brooksby wrote:

Well, as I always said about Covid: at least it didn't turn into a Rage epidemic or the zombie apocalypse… 

...yet

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brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 4 months ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Well, as I always said about Covid: at least it didn't turn into a Rage epidemic or the zombie apocalypse… 

...yet

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 4 months ago
2 likes

I didn't expect to see Charles Stross mentioned here - I'm a big fan of The Laundry Files (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laundry_Files ) which are like a modern day, humorous take on Lovecraftian horror, but with a lot more bureacracy.

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brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 4 months ago
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I liked them when it was all still secret.  I kind of lost interest once magic was brought out in the open.

I still remember his main character being so dismissive of "the Jesus Phone" (the iPhone) in the earliest novels…

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hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 4 months ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

I liked them when it was all still secret.  I kind of lost interest once magic was brought out in the open.

I still remember his main character being so dismissive of "the Jesus Phone" (the iPhone) in the earliest novels…

I prefer the earlier novels too, when he seemed to be having a lot more fun with the ideas. I thought The Annhilation Score was a low point, but I enjoyed the elves in the follow up book The Nightmare Stacks.

For anyone that wants to read a sample for free, there's Equoid available online: https://reactormag.com/equoid/

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brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 4 months ago
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hawkinspeter wrote:

I prefer the earlier novels too, when he seemed to be having a lot more fun with the ideas. I thought The Annhilation Score was a low point, but I enjoyed the elves in the follow up book The Nightmare Stacks.

I don't think I got that far.  The last one I remember reading was the one with vampires.

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andystow replied to hawkinspeter | 4 months ago
1 like

hawkinspeter wrote:

I didn't expect to see Charles Stross mentioned here - I'm a big fan of The Laundry Files (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laundry_Files ) which are like a modern day, humorous take on Lovecraftian horror, but with a lot more bureacracy.

I'm a big fan, too. I just finished Season of Skulls. Definitely loved the first few more than some of the recent ones, though.

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chrisonabike | 4 months ago
1 like

Interesting idea * - however some of the folks most exercised were apparently already kicking off right at the start. Could have been asymptomatic perhaps?

There were also some well-documented outbreaks of widespread teeth-gnashing before...

For fascinating stories (and backstories) of these times I recommend John Ronson's "then things fell apart ".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011cpr

* these kinds of things make me think of Edward de Bono's idea for peace
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/de-bono-s-marmite-plan-for-peace-in-m...

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 4 months ago
1 like

Second the recommendation, but a minor correction for anyone trying to find it - it's just "Things fell apart" - no 'then'.

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