Cowboy Bebop - "Asteroid Blues" - On Stimulants

Cowboy Bebop is a series which takes place in the year 2071. A pair of bounty hunters travel through space trying to capture criminals for profit. Along the way they meet new friends and overcome many obstacles.

In the first episode, Spike Spiegel and Jet Black head to the Tijuana asteroid colony in order to hunt down a man peddling a powerful stimulant known as Bloody-Eye. This stimulant heightens the senses and reflexes of anyone who injects it into themselves. However, it is heavily taxing to the body, with the possibility of seizures and delusions. Criminal organizations pay top dollar for it, as it takes over two months to make a single dose.

Stimulants in general, even legally regulated ones, often go for a premium in the real world as well. For example, amphetamine salts, commonly referred to by the name Adderall, remain highly misused among college students during cram sessions. And cigarettes have been elevated to something of a currency within prison systems, as inmates trade goods and services for them.

Perhaps the most common stimulant of all, the lowly caffeine, is the most overused. Coffee, soft drinks, even concentrated dispersal tablets, are all used to keep people awake far longer than their bodies can handle. And yet people continue to purchase it in record amounts to satisfy their growing addictions.

The trouble is that humans strive so hard to amplify their physical and mental abilities; in order to meet the demands of a fast-paced, 24/7 society; that they don't care about the costs. Whether it's the cost to one's wallet, or the cost to one's health, humans seek more and more for greater and greater effects.

The human body is, of course, highly resilient, but even it has its limits. And eventually the use of stimulants will not be enough to satisfy the energy needs of humans. Perhaps it is already happening. In 2012, a Chinese soccer fan stayed up for eleven days (over 250 hours) and subsequently died of organ failure. Stimulants, of course, were involved.

This isn't to say that all stimulants should be banned, of course. But due to their addictive properties and the psychology of those who routinely use them, they can be very dangerous. To address this, there are two directions society can take:

• The first is to curtail the 24/7 mentality of society. Moderating ourselves or having others moderate for us to ensure that we are not overtaxing our bodies through these stimulants. To follow this path is to teach others how mortal and vulnerable they truly are.
• The other option, of course, is taking the human body out of the equation. This goes back to the idea of prosthetic bodies which was partially discussed in the "On Bodyswapping" post. Artificial bodies do not face the same physical handicaps as organic ones, and therefore can go for longer under a higher degree of stress, even if stimulants are not applied.

There are questions, however, as to what would happen if stimulants did not display as many addictive physical and psychological effects. Would their sales go down, as people rely less on them? Or would they increase, as others who swear off the stop no longer fear the threat of addiction or health problems? Perhaps that is a discussion that should be further explored.