[net.ai] An ai offshoot, and maybe a new newsgroup

mab@bnl.UUCP (Michael A. Bloom) (12/17/83)

	"The suggestion for AI machines in medicine seems to point opposite to
	 improving that profession.  Medicine today has too many machines and
	 machine-oriented workers, too few healers.  The whole field is
	 distorted by the excessive rewards..."

Then let us work out a means by which machines are made to 'care' about
their patients.  Can we determine what is needed to do this?  Perhaps an
offshoot of ai is called for:  "artificial empathy" (complete with
"spiritual systems")     o :-)

	"The average MD has become a dispenser of technology,  prescribing
	 machine treatments and chemical doses.         ... There are
	 already too many Artificial Inteligences with Medicinae Doctor
	 initials-- we need more Humans.		--Genji"

True.  This has given me an idea for a *good* use of this media.  It is
VERY hard to find a good doctor. ( And people often don't look very hard
until they dont have the time to look).  What do people think of
proposing net.med.good-doc (maybe not the best of names).  Here people
can relate experiences they have had with what they consider to be good
doctors, naming the doctors, of course.  A problem would be that you
couldn't refer to a poor doctor as such (at least not without risking a
libel suit).
-- 

Michael A. Bloom	..!bnl!mab  or mcb@mit-mc.arpa or mab@bnl