Why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth?

Why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth? - Federal Medical Station

In Elysium, Med beds were sufficiently common and presumably affordable, that every household had one.

Since profit was part of the society's motive, why weren't they renting time on med beds at exorbitant prices?

Or, how come no philanthropists from Elysium tried to help people suffering on Earth?

Having even a few med beds on Earth would also help prevent the suicidal shuttle runs that Terrans made towards Elysium, which were sufficiently politically difficult to deal with that a sleeper agent on Earth had to take care of them.



Best Answer

In-universe, because the people living on Elysium were greedy and wanted to hoard the technology for themselves.

Out of universe, it's because the beds aren't intended to be real. According to the film's director Neil Blomkpamp, they're just a metaphor for medical poverty:

So, on Elysium you can imagine that if you went totally speculative sci-fi in the year 2154, the film becomes different, then you’re making a film about speculative ideas of what society might be like and what will happen is they’re no longer rich. Now it’s more like Star Trek, like there’s something else and the link between, ‘Oh, they’re rich people with pools’ has been lost.

So the medpods weren’t there for science fiction reasons, they were there just to represent that the poverty stricken person from El Salvador could go into parts of LA to get better medical attention or medical care for their kids. Medical aid is one of the things the First World has and longevity if you just look at the stats. So it was more a metaphor tool, but you are right in the sense about … like, well how far do they go, at what point is it just immortality? I think they probably live a few hundred years and then they die in the construct of the film.




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Why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth? - Person holding pills in hand while sitting on bed
Why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth? - Crop woman with heart in hands
Why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth? - Crop woman with heart on palms



Is the med bay from Elysium possible?

It is impossible. This isn't even science fiction, there is no known way how this could happen. The closest thing would be nanites, but they would work fundamentally differently and would most certainly not come in the form factor of a med bay with fancy light and sound effects.

What happened to the world in Elysium?

In Elysium, Blomkamp constructs his mid-22nd-century Earth, perhaps not post-apocalyptic as much as post-laissez-faire, in which unchecked overpopulation and disease exacerbated by economic collapse have devastated the entire planet, but the very wealthy have retreated to a space station called Elysium.



Artificial Intelligence health pods for quick diagnosis set to launch




More answers regarding why were the med beds from Elysium absent on Earth?

Answer 2

If you want to use Med beds you must be a cityzen of Elysium (the beds look for a tatoo-bar code connected to you DNA), and only rich people could be cityzen.

I assume there were no philantropists, since the rich people wanted to defend their status. Maybe there were also some laws against the smuggling of med beds and healt care.

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