THE MIRACLE “LIFE” TABLET:
ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL
Introduction
The human population has grown exponentially over the past century, ever since the industrial revolution and the two world wars. The rise of new technology and appreciation for life has increased lifespan and brought on billions of people onto this planet. The world has never seen this level of poverty reduced and the amount of resources available to the average citizen. However, the population is only growing as “The world population is projected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion by 2100” (U.N, 2022). Even with the access to resources being higher, there is an ever-growing population, and with this, the gap between the poor and the wealthy will only increase. Today, in 2023, there is a severe shortage of food and medical resources for billions across the eastern and western hemispheres. It is quite a sad sight to see the high obesity rates in countries like America, whilst there are children in Africa making food out of mud.
As the climate increasingly gets more erratic and the world population grows, food/water/ and medicine will be an ever-growing problem. Due to this, I propose that a pill, which can be taken once a day is mass-produced and primarily given to people in needy countries first. This small pill will be very concentrated, able to provide nutrients that come from food for an entire day, along with immune-boosting particles that will keep the body healthy and fight off diseases/viruses. With this innovation, world hunger and sickness will almost be gone overnight. This innovation could truly end up being a “miracle” for the world.
Why Life Tablets?
First of all, it is agreeable that everyone wants to live a happy life without having to worry about the essentials and surviving. Food and medicine are such precious commodities in this world and they will be even more scarce in the future. People will have to only take one pill a day and only have to worry about drinking water. Food and medicine will no longer be required as the pill will do the job. This will eliminate the countless pharmaceutical industries, drug industries, and most importantly the mass agricultural industry. In fact, “Agricultural production is a major use of land, accounting for over half of the U.S. land base. The 2012 U.S. land area amounted to nearly 2.3 billion acres, with nearly 1.2 billion acres in agricultural use” (USDA, 2012). With this more space for wildlife, people and other facilities will be opened up. In addition, a large carbon footprint from livestock will be largely removed due to the lack of dependency on animal consumption.
Furthermore, lifespans will greatly increase due to this miracle drug, as its regular use will strengthen the immune system and reduce disease and illness greatly. This will be most effective in nations in which people aren’t as wealthy and have access to medical facilities. In addition, while this pill won’t be able to help the water shortages directly, but instead it will open up more space that agriculture took to produce freshwater ponds and facilities, especially for the driest places and poor areas where clean, drinking water is a necessity. These tablets could possibly be the future of a more sustainable world and thriving human civilization.
Technical Description
For the miracle life tablet to become a possible reality, it will take a lot of cooperation between cooperations and world governments. We will need the top pharmaceutical companies to ally with the governments in a united effort to produce these pills; now, this isn’t far-fetched as just recently the governments and pharmaceutical companies worked together to produce a vaccine for Covid-19 in two years, a record that is still astonishing all things construed. We managed to single-handedly wipe out a global pandemic in just two years. Billions of dollars of funding will be needed, an investment well worth making, for this to happen. The top chemists, physicists, and biologists will need to work on this pill using nanotechnology, AI, and 3d Printing to materialize such an invention into existence. While the developmental process will be pricy and take one to two decades to produce, once tested and ready for mass production there will be no significant cost-related issues. The pill overall will be no larger than 2 inches by .5 centimeters and contain the daily amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids needed for a single adult daily. However, exceptions will be for kids, as smaller tablets will be produced for them. In addition, slightly larger tablets will be produced for people exceeding a certain weight limit as well as athletes and bodybuilders. In addition, the pills will be fully utilized and flushed out of the body every 24 hours.
Potential density of tablets, nanotechnology aided
Comparing with other Vitamins/Supplements
To compare this innovation with the various vitamin and supplement pills that exist today, there would be similarities and differences. Vitamin and supplement pills have been used for over a century, as “ The first vitamin pill to obtain the approval…was…a sugar-coated tablet of vitamin A and D made from cod-liver oil using a process developed…in the early 1920s” (SHI, 2012). Since then, many other vitamins, minerals, amino acids, oils, and supplements to enhance people’s health and lives have been utilized.
Eventually, the first all-in-one multivitamins “ were invented in 1943” (SF, 2018), commercializing the regular use of daily vitamins and one of the many factors in the increasing life expectancy post WW2. However, all those vitamins certainly can help to a healthier and longer life, but they don’t have the nutrients to sustain a human. The miracle tablets can ensure that one tablet a day keeps you alive and going in your normal life, in addition to having many particles that also keep your immune system in check and flush out viruses and illnesses to a strong degree.
It also helps to add that currently in terms of vitamin sales, “ North America and the Asia Pacific together make nearly 65% of the total sales of dietary supplements in the world. The US is the leading country in terms of sales in the global dietary supplements market followed by China and Germany” (BusinessWire, 2020). This means that many of the poorer 3rd-world countries are not getting access to many of the vitamins and minerals; this is especially troubling that these are the same countries that suffer from food and water shortages, and so the miracle tablet’s priority would be the poorer countries most in need of this innovation.
Conclusion and Resources
In terms of resources, this product will not be cheap; however, if it is developed it will be worth more than any dollar amount could ever be. The projections currently range anywhere from billions to possibly trillions of dollars; however, this could be reduced if the money is spent properly. This is not likely, unfortunately, due to the bureaucratic nature of major world governments, and the greedy nature of big cooperations. At the same time, however, there would need to be countless innovations on top of this tablet to produce it in the first place. Further innovations in nanotechnology, physics, biology, and the understanding of human anatomy would be needed to manufacture a tablet of the proposed qualities. Albeit, however much money is spent and research is needed, a successful final product of such a tablet could have effects that will greatly affect generations to come.
In conclusion, there is a long way to go before even conceiving such a miracle, but I hope this paper gives people an idea of what is needed from a superficial and human level for such a breakthrough. Even with this said, I do have hope for humanity, and if these last few years have taught us anything: it is to never doubt the resilience of humanity.
References
Figure 1- https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/pills-hand
Figure 2- https://www.123rf.com/photo_14506030_pictures-of-capsule-pills-showing-the-medicine-inside-it.html
Nations, U. (2022). Population. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/population#:~:text=The%20world%20in%202100
“USDA ERS – Land and Natural Resources.” (2012) Www.ers.usda.gov, www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/land-and-natural-resources/?topicId=a7a658d4-f209-4641-9172-066ca0896abe#:~:text=Agricultural%20production%20is%20a%20major.
Wendt, Diane. “Vitamins Come to Dinner.” Science History Institute, 6 June 2012, www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/vitamins-come-to-dinner#:~:text=The%20first%20vitamin%20pill%20to.
“The History of Vitamins | Timeline.” Supplement Factory, 23 May 2018, supplementfactoryuk.com/blog/2018/05/the-history-of-vitamins/#:~:text=The%20first%20one%2Da%2Dday.
“Global Dietary Supplements Market (2020 to 2026) – North America Generated Highest Revenue from Dietary Supplements – ResearchAndMarkets.com.” Www.businesswire.com, 24 July 2020, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200724005149/en/Global-Dietary-Supplements-Market-2020-to-2026—North-America-Generated-Highest-Revenue-from-Dietary-Supplements—ResearchAndMarkets.com#:~:text=North%20America%20and%20the%20Asia.
Reflection
The making of this project resulted in me brainstorming many ideas, and searching through the web to find ideas for the proposal of this technical innovation. In this, I was trying to find out problems in my life and the lives of others, and what is something that could improve our lives. What are some things that are frustrating or limiting us in life? In this pursuit of this question, it led me to food. Sure, most sane people like eating good food but honestly it takes a good amount of time in our day to cook and eat food and then clean everything up. Now, it’s even worse when after a good meal, you just want to sit down watch a movie or take a nap. So then, starving yourself would be ideal but we all know how that feels. So after some thinking, I proposed a pill that takes care of all your nutritional needs, and that only needs to be taken once a day.
After utilizing learning outcomes 1 and 6, I researched just how bad the carbon footprints of food were, and how many people were both obese and starving at the same time. Both were dying, just on different spectrums. The grim reality opened my eyes and led me to make this paper on this topic. In addition, I utilized learning outcome 3 by trying to convince the audience throughout my paper of the need for such an innovation and even presenting certain counterclaims or potential doubts; I did this to seem as unbiased as possible and strengthened my argument by appealing to a broader spectrum in this topic. I also had to utilize outcomes 5,6, and 8 by researching from credible sites in order to further enhance my paper by citing quotes, analyzing, and adding images. I cited using the proper APA citation as required by the assignment rubric, and am glad I was able to find good, reliable sources of information to support my topic.
Furthermore, of course, there were some issues going fully into the logistics, and I wasn’t quite able to give tangible data for certain areas of the product; especially those concerning its costs and other tangibles related to the manufacturing. This was primarily due to the various sectors involved and the sheer amount of research and innovations that would go into such a project. Overall, however, I hope that this paper gives fuel to lots of research about this innovation and I had a great time writing this and learning more about this world.
