THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 3
be able to control very soon. Recent
research in this area—including gene
drives, the release of irradiated males,
and the use of the bacterium Wo l
bachia—has been promising. If we in-
vest time and resources in technologies
like these, we might be able to dramat-
ically reduce the spread of mosquito-
borne illnesses, saving billions of lives.
Nathan Tanner
West Newbury, Mass.
1
LIKE A GNathan Heller, in his article on the past
and the future of automobiles, makes a
specious comparison between airplanes
and self-driving cars (Books, July 29th).
Yes, modern commercial airplanes are
controlled predominantly by onboard
computers while aloft. But those planes
are continuously monitored and directed
by a human pilot and co-pilot, not to
mention a fleet of human air-traffic con-
trollers. There is also significantly less
congestion at thirty thousand feet than
on the road—no pedestrians, children,
bicycles, potholes, construction zones,
ice slicks, mattresses, or any of the other
innumerable hazards that car drivers
routinely face. Self-driving cars may
turn out to be a much safer technology
than human-driven cars, as Heller ar-
gues. But he understates the challenge
of getting people to accept the ethical
implications of the accidents that will
inevitably occur, even if there are far
fewer of them. Today, when people are
killed in car accidents, we can blame
human drivers, whose deficiencies we
can understand and even forgive, and
we can punish lawbreakers. Having a
loved one killed by a programmed ma-
chine will be psychologically wrench-
ing in a much different way.
Lawrence R. Bernstein
Menlo Park, Calif.APEX PREDATOR
Brooke Jarvis, in her review of “The
Mosquito: A Human History of Our
Deadliest Predator,” by Timothy C.
Winegard, writes that singular-factor
histories often suffer from myopia
(Books, August 5th & 12th). I appreci-
ate this point, especially given Wine-
gard’s account of slavery in the Carib-
bean. It’s true, as Jarvis explains, that,
among Caribbean nations, “those col-
onized by the English, the Dutch, and
the French tend to have populations
that are of majority African descent;
only the former Spanish colonies have
significant populations descended from
Europeans.” It’s misleading, however,
to center this narrative on mosquitoes,
as Winegard does, by pointing to the
claim that the Spanish were more re-
sistant to mosquito-borne diseases than
colonizers from elsewhere in Europe
were. When the Spanish expanded their
empire in the Americas, they focussed
on gold and silver mining. In contrast,
British and French colonies such as Bar-
bados, Jamaica, and Saint-Domingue
were dominated by industrialized sugar
production. Sugarcane farming was bru-
tal work, and plantation owners on these
islands relied on slaves to do it. When
slaves died—some from mosquito-
borne illnesses, but many others from
dehydration, malnutrition, and physi-
cal abuse—slaveowners simply bought
more. Compared with the Spanish, the
British and the French brought more
African slaves to the region, more often,
right until the end of the Atlantic slave
trade. In these colonies, it was the con-
stant demand for labor, not mosqui-
toes, that shaped demographics, creat-
ing populations that were of majority
African descent.
Aimee Loiselle
Springfield, Mass.
Jarvis writes that mosquitoes have served
as a natural check on human hubris and
expansion, and may do so in the future.
At the risk of proving her point, I’d
argue that mosquitoes are one part of
the natural world that humans might
•
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