[ExI] ok geezer, was: RE: Meta question again

spike spike66 at att.net
Sat Aug 27 00:21:28 UTC 2016



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of crw
...


>...All voice-activated - don't need to get out of bed, don't need to fumble
with controls...

Exactly crw.  No controls, no commands to memorize, no users manual.  All we
have to make it go is voice, and the assumption that the user doesn't know
diddley and can't learn.

>...As natural language processing and machine learning inevitably gets
better, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility for the cloud
service to respond with "you've told me this story before" or "the last time
you told me that anecdote, this detail was different"...

Exactly not, crw.  Just the opposite.  That's why software can do this task
waaaay better than humans: it has infinite patience and it isn't growing
old.  That applies to neither of us.  The point of the exercise is to mimick
human presence until the patient doesn't even know it isn't a real person
there, or doesn't care, or does care but prefers the company of the
software, which isn't hard to imagine if she responds patiently always,
never says "you told me this before" and looks like Dr. Jill Stein.  Hey
were do I sign?

Review my earlier comments and if you know a neighbor elderly couple where
one already has Alzheimers, watch how the non-AD partner acts when the AD
partner begins a story for the eighth time in the past hour.  She often
gives him instant negative feedback, at which time he shuts down:  HAROLD!
You already told that story!"

crw, if you take me up on my suggestion to visit a memory care facility,
this is exactly what I hope you observe: see what happens when you react
exactly the same way the second time as you did the first time.  React with
surprise at the punchline even the fourth time.  I think we can get a Dr.
Stein icon to do that even better than humans can, and be more attractive
while doing it, or far more attractive that we ugly old boys are (assuming
you are one of us boys (which I do not know (tell us something about you if
you wish.)))

This could really help AD patients who are still living in their homes.
Consider that once an Alzheimer's patient is easily diagnosed and needs to
go to a facitily, he typically only has about 4 years left, and of those
only the next two are really worth living, by my definition of the terms
"worth" and "living."  So if we had this software in the home, and could
give the patient a chance to really work that brain (such as thinking of
ways to seduce this attractive mysterious visitor who talks to him through a
window) he might be able to stay in that home for perhaps an additional
year, rather than go to the facility, saving a toooonnnnn of money and
greatly increasing the quality of life for the patient (go to that facility,
see it for yourself crw, for if you do, you will never forget what you saw
there and realize why I am hammering on this so hard.)


>...No clue how helpful that would actually be...

I have a clue: if we get this to work, it will help people who desperately
need it.

>... I imagine being able to respond in context would help some of the
feelings of loneliness...

Ja, and even if it didn't help, it couldn't hoit.

>... I don't know much about alzheimers, but giving a person the ability to
literally recreate memories like that might be pretty empowering...

JA!

>... Or it could be soul-crushing to be confronted with what you've lost.
-c.

NEIN!  

Way nein.  When my mother in law was in the facility after they had been
married 52 years, my saintly father in law went there every day and spent
all day there with her for the remainder of her life.  Often he would just
take photo albums and they would sit together and leaf thru them.  It was
hard to say how much it helped, but if you want soul-crushing, I'll tell ya
soul-crushing: what of those patients who are getting old and one day
grandpa wanders outdoors at 3 a.m. in his pajamas.  Well, there is no law
against wandering outdoors at 3 a.m. in your pajamas in most states,
assuming you are wearing both halves with no odd-numbered appendages
flapping in the breeze, but it can result in the patient winding up in a
facility.  Alzheimer's patients have good days and bad days; clearly the 3am
stroll was a bad day.  But what happens a few days later, when the patient
is having a good day, and suddenly he looks around and realizes where he is.
He doesn't know anything about the morning stroll, doesn't have any idea how
he got there, but he has to assume he must have committed a crime of some
sort, apparently a violent crime, and this is a prison for old people.  That
sir or madam, is soul crushing.

We can do better.  We must do better.  We owe it to our grandparents, we owe
it to our parents.  We owe it to us, for we are the next ones on that list
to be found out for a walk at 3am and if the above scenario plays out,
remember remember remember, we had a chance to fix this or at least help,
right now, and we let it slip through our fingers.  We let it slip away, and
here you are.  Then snap back to reality like awakening from a nightmare,
realizing it hasn't happened to us yet, but then review that nightmare with
the shattering realization that THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW to others, right
now, people who were as hip and sharp as we are today only ten or twenty yrs
ago.  Then if I haven't already depressed you enough, I will give it one
more shot: think about where you were and what you were doing ten or twenty
years ago, and realize it isn't really that much time.  That memory is
surprisingly fresh, ja?  Twenty years is not such a long time.  

We have aaaaaalll the technology we need, right now.  Alllllll we need to do
is gather the right hipsters with the right expertise.  We need a
motion-icons guy, a speech recognition guy, a text to speech guy, we need a
script writer which I can do to some extent or we can pool our efforts and
make it crowd-sourced content.  Who here knows how to take a big lookup
table and make it pass input/output to a talking icon?  You may print out
this post, keep it on your desk and if you forget what I have written above,
particularly in this paragraph, you may take it off your desk, roll it up
and swat yourself in the face with it to wake up, then THINK of how to
proceed as quickly as possible.  THINK how to proceed as quickly as possible
and LETS GET ON THIS right away please, forthwith, now, right away, DAVAI,
DAVAI, DAVAI!

spike  













More information about the extropy-chat mailing list