[ExI] non-physician heal thyself

[Mike Dougherty]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 9:42 AM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 7:50 AM, Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You already hold the sum total of human knowledge in the palm of your
>> hand.  Soon that device will be shipping with the AI necessary for your
>> feeble human brain to actually find and consume the relevant parts of that
>> total knowledge.  The AI doctor will see you now.  It will have also seen
>> you in all the moments preceding now.  It will continue to see you in all
>> the moments after.  Your treatment will be voluntary, of course, but the
>> cost of non-compliance will likely be higher than you want to incur.  Since
>> the device is your menu, your waiter, and your wallet... you will be very
>> effectively "cared for" by the device.
>>
>
> ​Now what would really make this a wonderful new reality is that if I
> could prescribe my own drugs.  This is an immense power physicians have
> over all of us.  I realize the abuses could be horrendous, but maybe we
> could start with an AI recommending some treatment and giving the OK to a
> druggist.  And leaving out opiates and some others.
>
> Say start with metformin - truly a wonder drug (Google it!), but taking it
> without signs of diabetes is off-label use and all we can do is ask for it
> from our physician​.
>

I imagine with Amazon drone delivery, your co-signed drugs could be flown
to you within mere minutes.

The decision for who should be allowed what category of drugs goes to a
discussion of philosophy and politics and economics.  Regardless of your
philosophy or the philosophy of the legislators, there exists powerful
entities who leverage the law to maintain their revenue streams.  I don't
expect anything this side of the singularity to break that hegemony.
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