I'm sure that part of the resistance that doctors express to software like the Coupler comes from feeling threatened; however, a good deal of the resistance also has its roots in the very nature of how doctors view technology.
I used to work pretty closely with software meant to be used by doctors, and saw many of the results of the focus groups our managers conducted with the physicians. An interesting fact emerged: most doctors see technology, especially computer software, as unreliable. Think about it: when you're mucking around in someone's head, removing a tumor from their brain, you don't want a tool that's still in 'beta testing"; you want something that has been proven accurate and reliable and absolutely perfect 100% of the time, without a single flaw. So when you're using a software tool that can diagnose conditions and even recommend treatment (including medication), you're going to be extra careful, and probably not even consider what the software has to say. At best, you might think of it as a list of possibilities, but not the final word.
Doctors trust their instincts and their education and training over technology. When a doctor purchases a piece of software like the Coupler, she has no idea who built the database behind it. Was it a trained physician who graduated top of the class at Harvard or Yale? Or some computer programmer sitting in a cubicle in some office somewhere, reading a textbook?
The folks of the/. community are generally people whose lives are intertwined in their technology and their tools. Physicians, as a whole, are generally not that way; they instinctively mistrust technology that they haven't seen tested into the ground and then some. Many doctors offices still use paper files to track cases and medical information, because they don't trust their computers to hang on to that valuable and confidential information. (Not all doctors are so technophobic; my last pulmonologist kept much of his case information on his Palm Pilot and loved playing around with the spirometry software that he loaded onto this Win2K machine; I tried convincing him of the value of OSS, but he wanted to wait until retirement before risking something like that. He's retired now, so I think he's off in the midwest doing his first Linux installation.)
So this article doesn't take me by surprise at all. I'd be much, MUCH more surprised if I'd read that doctors all over the world are embracing a new piece of software like this whole-heartedly and without reservation.
Re:Er... This doesn't sound right...
on
The Chronoliths
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· Score: 1
Bit of a spoiler below...
The paradox of the "non-existent leader" isn't one, for precisely the reason others in this thread have pointed out. The great military leader whose works are memorialized by the Chronliths has not yet emerged as a military leader. Gads, I wish I could remember his name! Well, part of the book at least does focus on many people in the world trying to figure out who the leader is, and where he might be currently residing, building up his army for his first major victory in Southeast Asia.
The Chronoliths is a good book, but not the strongest by this author. Better than Bios. I highly recommend Mysterium by the same author, if you can find it.
That calling this group the "Alexis de Toqueville Institute" is kinda like renaming the Creation Science Institute to the "Charles Darwin Institution for the Study of Evolution".
There are a lot of environmental organizations out there that need computational help, from web design and development to network support to bioinformatics programming. Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, the funding for these organizations (almost all of which comes from charitable donations) is drying up, so they can't pay for these services (though you might be able to get a tax break for your time). On the other hand, there are a lot of unemployed web programmers now looking for something to do.
I'm personally spending some volunteer time helping to establish a web presence for a local environmental group building an environmental scorecard for the Say Francisco Bay Area.
Well, for awhile there were stories circulating about a group that was trying to do just that. See http://www.snopes2.com/religion/clone.htm. There was even a story about them on NPR's "All Things Considered"; apparently the group duped a whole bunch of people.
I suspect that if anyone managed to track down authentic DNA from Jesus and managed to clone Him, they'd be a bit disappointed in what they'd come up with. Jesus and his contemporaries lived in Palestine after all; not many blond, blue-eyed, 6-foot tall guys native to that region. And since he hung out with fishermen, he'd probably stink to high Heaven as well.
It will happen; it will take a very long time, I think (probably not in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of my grandchildren), but it will happen. Censorship of print and broadcast technologies worked quite well for the Soviet bloc for a number of years, decades even, but the influx of ideas was on the whole too much to keep out.
The United States isn't perfect, but I'm certainly happy to be living in a country where I won't be gunned down in the street after an election because I didn't vote for the right people.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure that part of the resistance that doctors express to software like the Coupler comes from feeling threatened; however, a good deal of the resistance also has its roots in the very nature of how doctors view technology.
/. community are generally people whose lives are intertwined in their technology and their tools. Physicians, as a whole, are generally not that way; they instinctively mistrust technology that they haven't seen tested into the ground and then some. Many doctors offices still use paper files to track cases and medical information, because they don't trust their computers to hang on to that valuable and confidential information. (Not all doctors are so technophobic; my last pulmonologist kept much of his case information on his Palm Pilot and loved playing around with the spirometry software that he loaded onto this Win2K machine; I tried convincing him of the value of OSS, but he wanted to wait until retirement before risking something like that. He's retired now, so I think he's off in the midwest doing his first Linux installation.)
I used to work pretty closely with software meant to be used by doctors, and saw many of the results of the focus groups our managers conducted with the physicians. An interesting fact emerged: most doctors see technology, especially computer software, as unreliable. Think about it: when you're mucking around in someone's head, removing a tumor from their brain, you don't want a tool that's still in 'beta testing"; you want something that has been proven accurate and reliable and absolutely perfect 100% of the time, without a single flaw. So when you're using a software tool that can diagnose conditions and even recommend treatment (including medication), you're going to be extra careful, and probably not even consider what the software has to say. At best, you might think of it as a list of possibilities, but not the final word.
Doctors trust their instincts and their education and training over technology. When a doctor purchases a piece of software like the Coupler, she has no idea who built the database behind it. Was it a trained physician who graduated top of the class at Harvard or Yale? Or some computer programmer sitting in a cubicle in some office somewhere, reading a textbook?
The folks of the
So this article doesn't take me by surprise at all. I'd be much, MUCH more surprised if I'd read that doctors all over the world are embracing a new piece of software like this whole-heartedly and without reservation.
Bit of a spoiler below...
The paradox of the "non-existent leader" isn't one, for precisely the reason others in this thread have pointed out. The great military leader whose works are memorialized by the Chronliths has not yet emerged as a military leader. Gads, I wish I could remember his name! Well, part of the book at least does focus on many people in the world trying to figure out who the leader is, and where he might be currently residing, building up his army for his first major victory in Southeast Asia.
The Chronoliths is a good book, but not the strongest by this author. Better than Bios. I highly recommend Mysterium by the same author, if you can find it.
Personally, I think the Scots are just letting their haggis sit for too long in the sun before eating it.
That calling this group the "Alexis de Toqueville Institute" is kinda like renaming the Creation Science Institute to the "Charles Darwin Institution for the Study of Evolution".
There are a lot of environmental organizations out there that need computational help, from web design and development to network support to bioinformatics programming. Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, the funding for these organizations (almost all of which comes from charitable donations) is drying up, so they can't pay for these services (though you might be able to get a tax break for your time). On the other hand, there are a lot of unemployed web programmers now looking for something to do.
I'm personally spending some volunteer time helping to establish a web presence for a local environmental group building an environmental scorecard for the Say Francisco Bay Area.
Well, for awhile there were stories circulating about a group that was trying to do just that. See http://www.snopes2.com/religion/clone.htm. There was even a story about them on NPR's "All Things Considered"; apparently the group duped a whole bunch of people.
I suspect that if anyone managed to track down authentic DNA from Jesus and managed to clone Him, they'd be a bit disappointed in what they'd come up with. Jesus and his contemporaries lived in Palestine after all; not many blond, blue-eyed, 6-foot tall guys native to that region. And since he hung out with fishermen, he'd probably stink to high Heaven as well.
It will happen; it will take a very long time, I think (probably not in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of my grandchildren), but it will happen. Censorship of print and broadcast technologies worked quite well for the Soviet bloc for a number of years, decades even, but the influx of ideas was on the whole too much to keep out.
The United States isn't perfect, but I'm certainly happy to be living in a country where I won't be gunned down in the street after an election because I didn't vote for the right people.