The Future for Medical Technology and Patient Care

There have been many recent references to chatbot apps like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and Google’s Bard. These new Chatbots are software programs that use artificial intelligence to generate language that simulates human conversation. You may think of chatbots as computers conversing with humans about an unlimited range of topics. AI is generally known as the ability of a computer to explore data, learn, craft language, and mimic human behavior. AI is now used in many applications, including robotics. Discussions about AI are beginning to dominate news shows, video, and print media. A quick Google search on artificial intelligence will yield more than a trillion search results. With this mounting interest, let’s take a moment to explore this topic.

The No Technobabble Zone

by Dr. Chuck Cadle

You may remember HAL, the supercomputer featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that pitted artificial intelligence against human intelligence. Since then, most AI-related movies have featured robots with superhuman intelligence and skills. The recently released Artifice Girl explores the ethics of assimilating artificial intelligence into mainstream reality. One Rotten Tomatoes movie critic, Romey Norton, wrote, “Probing ethical implications around the use of AI is current and, indeed, something we will see more of in our storylines. (Maybe they’ll even be written by an AI).”

Ethics is an angle all medical professionals and patients should be concerned about. How much reliance should we put on AI-generated assistance? A recent 60 Minutes interview featuring the CEO of Google and Alphabet revealed that AI had accumulated all human knowledge, discovered how to present empathetic responses to inquiries, and was trained to use predictions to provide the most compelling answers. The predictive example used in the interview was saying “peanut butter and...” the next predicted word would be “jelly.” Supercomputer AI programs have access to trillions of responses and are designed to learn and present the best predictive and emotive reactions to human requests. In other words, AI generates very convincing responses. In addition to inquiry responses, AI can create poems, essays, stories, and even videos. For example, AI was asked to create a compelling story using keywords during the 60

More Americans have died on US roads since 2006 than in World Wars I & II combined as we release our inner NASCAR driver.

The most common act of lawbreaking in the US, and probably the world at large, is speeding. It seems that just about everyone does it, and maybe sometimes they should. After all, if the speed limit on a certain stretch of road is 35 and everyone except you is going 55, you are creating the hazard. It would be safer for you and for other drivers if you sped up enough to join the stream. If you don’t you’ll experience a constant stream of tailgaters and impatient and annoyed passers. It would actually be safer to speed.

• because, quite frankly, we’re more important than everyone else; like it or not, speeding and aggressive driving shows a level of disrespect for the law and for other drivers.

Naturally, all of us reading this are the exceptions to all the foregoing. What can we do when we encounter the reckless fools we just described? Let us count the ways:

Us Count The Ways

Not that we’re giving general amnesty to speeders. We most definitely are not. Excessive speed is a factor in about one-third of all highway fatalities. That is one-third of a very large number: an estimated 42,915 Americans died in car crashes in 2021, more than a 10% jump from 2020.

Why is speeding so dangerous? Let us count the ways:

• losing control of the vehicle is more likely.

• crashing is more likely because stopping distance is increased.

• crash severity and therefore injury severity increases with increased speed.

• with every mile per hour of additional speed, various occupant protection features become fractionally less and less effective. It all starts to add up.

This could be a controversial statement in some quarters, but we’re going to say it anyway: people in general have a decent level of intelligence. They know that speeding is illegal and dangerous, yet they (correction: we) do it anyway. Why?

Let us count the ways:

• because no cops are around; if there’s no one to officially document that we did something illegal, we didn’t.

• because unless we crash, it isn’t officially dangerous; there may have been the potential for danger, but we avoided it.

• because, well, traffic: congestion makes drivers impatient and aggressive, and we certainly have no shortage of congestion on CSRA roads. Have you been in Grovetown lately during a rush hour period?

• because we’re running late; everyone needs to help out by getting out of our way.

• because nobody knows it’s us; we may be a shy Sunday school teacher, but inside the steel and glass cocoon we travel around in, there’s a degree of anonymity that we take advantage of out of it all by herself. Once she is in it, it wraps her up like a little taco and she swings and swings, giggling all the while, so we think we did well in finding this for her. It seems both comforting and fun for her.

• try to obey the law as much and as often as possible. A good start is knowing what the law is, then actually following it. For example, in both South Carolina and Georgia it is illegal to camp out in the left lane. Tooling down I-20 or Riverwatch, for instance, don’t stay in the left lane. Drive right.

• on a related note, don’t be a self-appointed traffic cop. Say you’re driving down Riverwatch. The speed limit is 55 mph. You’re going 70, and you’re in the left lane, where some moron is tailgating you. You’re already driving 15 miles over the limit, so you are not about to move over for this clown, are you? The answer: yes, you are. The law says move over; in most cases stay in the right lane unless passing. It is not your job to try to slow him down and enforce the speed limit law you’re already breaking. Don’t judge. Maybe the guy’s wife called him; she’s in labor. You don’t know; just move over.

• ixnay on the obscene gestures. The same goes for yelling, stare-downs, brake checking, getting out of your car at a traffic light, or “teaching him a lesson” by some slick driving maneuver. And for the love of all that is good and holy, never ever ever involve a weapon in a situation as supremely trivial as a traffic encounter.

• discard the ridiculous concept of “winning.” Many drivers get involved in meaningless contests with other motorists, as though driving is like some pick-up basketball game. It doesn’t matter who started it; what seems to matter is winning. Ignore the fact that Driver A is obsessed with defeating Driver B, who is a complete stranger whom Driver A will never see again. It’s all about the victory, even if it requires a dozen traffic infractions.

• don’t end a confrontation with an aggressive tailgater, for example, by driving home. Showing this maniac where you live? Not a good idea. Disengage in a shopping center, a fire station, or some other safe place with plenty of people and bright lighting.

• focus on staying alive.

Despite the challenges, Freyja brings so much joy and laughter into our lives. She has a beautiful, infectious, dimpled smile and a contagious sense of wonder. Even on the toughest days, she reminds us to find the joy in the small moments. When she giggles, which she does a lot, only a heartless person could resist smiling or even laughing themselves. We’ve learned to celebrate her achievements, no matter how small they may seem to others. She recently started using a fork correctly. Well, sort of. She will stab the item of food with the fork, bring it close to her mouth, pull it off with her other hand and stick it in her mouth. For now that’s close enough. When she says a word, which is rare, and isn’t always a real word, we make a big deal over it and clap so we can encourage her efforts to speak. She even said “papa” a few times. “Baby” and “daddy” are words she sometimes says too, though she gives no indication that she understands what she is saying, and indeed, we have been told not to expect her to ever learn to speak. That said, we aren’t giving up hope. We also learn to appreciate the small joys in life, like watching her play outside in the sandbox or swinging on her swingset in the yard. She is definitely an outdoor girl and loves walking in the woods and would stay outside all day, every day if we let her. I’m hoping to spend more time with her in these pursuits as she gets older.

One of the things we expected would help us with the kids this summer was our pool, but alas, a windstorm caused enough damage a couple of weeks ago to destroy it. We did get the good news that our homeowner’s insurance policy will cover it, but with depreciation it will cover less than half the cost to replace it, so we will be doing the work ourselves. Let’s hope that doesn’t necessitate another trip to the emergency room, but if it does, at least I will have another good story to share. The other bonus is that so many friends ask us what they can do to help, but we often don’t have an answer. I am about to make them all regret asking, because they will be my labor force to get this pool set up.

Until next time, enjoy the little things in life, and try to find the humor in everything.

J.B. Collum is a local novelist, humorist and columnist who wants to be Mark Twain when he grows up. He may be reached at johnbcollum@gmail.com