[Rain Man]

#12 - Cure for cancer (Late-stage survival rates > 97%)

I voted no on this one, even though I foresee continued progress.

My theory is that something has to kill us eventually. If we cure cancer as it exists now, something else will rise up the charts that's currently rare or non-existent. Alzheimer's is a good example of that, in that it wasn't common when life spans were short. Once we got past the age of gruesome industrial accidents and cholera, we ran into Alzheimer's. If we get past cancer, there'll be something else, and maybe it'll just be a different type of cancer. Who knows?

So the bottom line is that I may be hedging my bet here. I think that cure rates will go up over time, but we may end up with more exotic cancers becoming common along with other currently rare afflictions.