Category: General Medicine
Human empathy and sex robots
Part of a debate happening in the Junior Doctor’s Contract group about human empathy and AI. Here’s something I shared that I hope will be of value (particularly the last 3 paragraphs)
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Doctor’s comment: there will be a place for AI but it will never fully make human drs redundant. Ultimately decisions regarding best interests will need to be made and just because something has been found doesn’t mean anything needs doing about it etc. A large part of medicine is about human empathy, difficult to artificially create that.
My response:
Thanks for pointing this out Jamie, as it further underscores the dangers that unprepared Doctors are facing. I agree with you that human empathy is at the heart of medicine. But I disagree that empathy is difficult to artificially create, given that stressed, overworked, sleep deprived Medics have to artificially create empathy all the time. We don’t feel like being empathetic all the time. And in those moments, the techniques we use to create an empathetic connection with a patient are easily replicated by the current state of AI-powered robot doctors…robot doctors that don’t get tired or stressed.
And when you consider an entire generation of patients being trained to emotionally engage with search engines, Alexa, Siri and even AI-powered sex robots (https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreamorris/2018/09/25/prediction-sex-robots-are-the-most-disruptive-technology-we-didnt-see-coming/#61437b3b6a56)…interacting with an attentive, caring robot unit when you’re unwell isn’t hard to imagine.
Even with this reality upon us, your point about human empathy is vital. Human empathy is the only real value proposition that Medics have to offer…and they’re competing with AI-robots in delivering it.
But when you consider how the current healthcare system is systematically stripping Medics of their empathy for their patients, Doctors need to make radical changes to guard their ability to empathise with other human beings at all costs…to avoid becoming collateral damage of progress.
I think one way of doing this is for Medics to reinvent themselves and find ways to express their full range of talents, whether or not they can figure out a way to integrate them into the current healthcare system.
Writers, musicians, dancers, painters, coders, YouTubers, video gamers…Medics should explore ways to work in these areas, and even get paid for doing the other things that they love.
Once Medics are financially and emotionally independent of the healthcare system, they’re then free to engage with it from a position of generosity, empathy and inventiveness that will complement and direct the progress of AI technology in medicine.
Thoughts? 🙂
Einstein’s Insanely Simple Guide To Fixing The NHS
The NHS is in trouble.
How much trouble?
Well…how long is a piece of string?
At a micro level, you’ve got the frustration of Medics who are overworked, inadequately supported, and silently struggling with depression and suicide.
And at a macro level, you’ve got the usual suspects of: hospital closures, huge waiting times, poor allocation of resources…not to mention the role of Brexit in exacerbating these issues.
So the question is: what can we do to fix things? How can we make things better?
Answer: ask a genius outside the NHS to help us fix it.
A genius like…Albert Einstein.
Even though he’s been dead for over 60 years, his brilliance has lived on, through online memes featuring statements like:
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
However, if you had to pick just ONE of Einstein’s many brilliant insights and apply it to fixing the NHS, I believe it would be this one:
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Think crazy
If you were to sum up the history of human innovation in just 5 words, it would look like this:
Today’s brilliance was yesterday’s bonkers.
Switching from horses to cars…crazy.
Flying through the air in a metallic aircraft…crazy.
Running a mile in under 4 minutes…crazy.
Convincing Doctors to wash their hands with soap…crazy.
Women voting, a black President of the USA, the telephone, the Internet, driverless cars, space travel to Mars…
Today’s brilliance was yesterday’s bonkers.
This means that the cure for cancer, or AIDS or cystic fibrosis could be hiding in plain sight…disguised as a ludicrously impractical “mad hatter”.
This means that the solution to that extremely complex situation that you’re dealing with is probably much simpler than you dare to imagine.
This means that the key to solving the global healthcare challenges facing humanity…is simply empowering and encouraging each of us to think and look like one of “the crazy ones”.
Get some sleep, do some aerobic exercise, and think differently for 10 minutes each morning.
That’s how practical this idea is.
Given humanity’s excellent track record in seeing a brilliant innovation and quickly dismissing it as crazy, ridiculous or impossible…it stands to reason that we should be more intentional about exploring today’s crazy in order to discover tomorrow’s normal.
In other words, make time each day to think differently…to think crazy.
How do we do that, particularly in a highly regulated, litigation-rife industry such as healthcare?
Or even more importantly, how do you become more intentional about exploring the ideas and interests that you’ve earmarked as impractical, impossible or “for when I have time”?
Yes, you.
That’s the real question.
Because when we talk about “the NHS”, we’re really talking about the people who make up the NHS…people like you and me.
And if we will dare to think differently, dare to look like a fool, dare to ask a silly question today in order to discover a brilliant answer tomorrow…then we will not only transform the NHS, but also the lives of generations to come.
Image: @hughmacleod
Will I regret not trying this?
Whether you’re in medical school, on the wards or in a different context…live life in a way you won’t regret when you’re 80.
Don’t let your context determine your choices.
Let your choices transform your context.
It’s not how you start, but how you finish that counts.
Make sure you finish with as few regrets as possible.
Don’t forget your Vitamins
There are 2 classes of biomolecules: macro and micro.
The macro molecules are the ones that hog the limelight: Proteins, Carbohydrates and Lipids. We eat a lot of these each day and we break them down to create ATPÂ …the Energizer bunnies that keep our bodies alive.
But the micro molecules…vitamins and minerals…Don’t get nearly enough attention.
For one thing, we only need a small amount of each one each day (miligrams or mjcrograms). And another thing, is we don’t create any energy from their breakdown.
However.
Even though minerals and vitamins don’t release energy from being broken down, without them it would be impossible to create energy from the Macro Trio of Proteins, Carbohydrates and Lipids.
In other words, the little guys run this show when it comes to regulating the metabolic pathways that keep us alive.
So here’s the question: what are your Vitamins?
I don’t mean your Thiamine, Riboflavin and Vitamin A.
I mean the “little things” that don’t have anything to do with what you’re supposed to be doing…and everything to do with who you really are.
They’re the interests, skills and hobbies that so easily get put off till “later”. They’re also the things you need if you want to generate the maximum ATP from whatever pathway you’re pursuing.
Remember, you only need 900 micrograms of vitamin A each day to maintain your vision.
But if you keep neglecting your intake of it…because it’s only 900 micrograms…the end result could be blindness.
Be honest with yourself about what your Vitamins are…and then be brave enough to prioritise your intake of them each day.
Have fun with it
Don’t do it because it’s on the test.
Don’t do it because your parents want you to be a Doctor.
Don’t do it because you’re afraid of failing.
Don’t do it because it’s expected of you.
Don’t do it because you need to.
Do it…because you get to.
You don’t have to study…you get to study.
And you get to learn amazing things about the human body that were complete mysteries just even a century ago.
I’m sorry for the “grown up” things you’ve gone through that have made you grow calluses and a thick skin…Just to survive.
But the ultimate act of rebellion…And the best way to fight back…is to have the audacity to have fun in whatever you’re doing.
They may be forcing you to learn endless minutiae…But you’re the one who can decide to have fun whilst you’re doing it.
Just cause they’re cracking the whip doesn’t stop you from being able to whistle while you work.
Find a way to have fun with it…Because you can.
Harmonic layering of Anatomy
This is an idea I borrowed from Scott at Scott’s Bass Lessons.
When it comes to playing a bass line, he starts with the rhythm, then the chord, then the chord tone (arpegio) and then finishes with the chord scale.
In other words, he doesn’t just try to play a Groove (Registered trademark).
Instead he lays it down, one layer at a time.
You can do the same thing with anatomy or anything that you’re learning.
So with anatomy, start with a stick man.
I’m serious.
Head, legs, arms, stick body…an extremely simplistic representation of a human being.
Congratulations, you know that humans have 1 head (Not two) and 2 arms and 2 legs.
Great! What else can you tell us?
You could then draw eyes, nose and mouth.
Fantastic! Tell us more!
And then step by step you just keep adding layers to the picture you’ve drawn until it fully represents the human body.
The more layers you can add, the more points you get.
But the point of this game is to take away the fear and feeling of being overwhelmed when studying a topic full of minutiae.
You know way more than zero.
And you can learn all the details if you’ll build up your picture/knowledge, one layer at a time.