Lots of demo technologies, lots of expensive services, not much wisdom (sustainable methods) for all
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative @ChanZuckerberg Imagine seeing a heartbeat at the cellular level. Steven Niederer is leveraging MRI, biophysics & AI to visualize muscle cell orientation in beating hearts. A new tool for understanding heart function! https://pic.x.com/kesrszoqxp
Replying to @ChanZuckerberg
Filed as: Lots of demo technologies, lots of expensive services, not much wisdom (sustainable methods) for all
The Internet is getting worse, not better. You might not notice if you have adjusted to spending hours to find things that should take seconds. Or tried to do something that can be conceived and planned in a short time, but takes years or decades to accomplish. If you are doing the easy things, that is a slippery slope because it makes you forget the harder problems, and just do what one shot AIs tell you is possible.
That is mostly due to the “let everyone figure it out on their own” and “let everyone do what they like” on the Internet, in computing, in knowledge, in educations, in common services, in conducting wars, is setting directions and priorities. Only a very tiny few are using their guts, and emotions, and memories in their brain cells to make decisions for billions now. That is no verifiable, there are no checks and balances, their is no recourse, there is no alternative.
I wrote a bit, but what I want is for groups and individuals who see glitzy technology to look deeper at who is benefiting, who is making the decisions. See if they have systems in place to listen and change, to verify, to challenge and encourage all humans, not just a few.
When I was working at Georgetown University Center for Population Research, I worked on modeling countries out 50 years. Then I spent three years on an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignment for three years at the USAID Burea for Program and Policy Coordination combining the data from all US federal agencies working internationally. And all data from UN agencies into one Economic and Social Database. Then I trained the users of the old systems and new ones, to use all the data, linked to tools, to plan project, to plan programs, to evaluate projects, to evaluate programs, to look at whole countries, to look at whole regions, to look at global resources, to look at global needs, to look at global issues and opportunities. And I set in place training in microcomputers and constrained optimization using all data. Then I went to set up the Famine Early Warning System.
But my point is not that. I was also taking courses and studying chemistry in the GU Chemistry department. Nuclear magnetic resonance, heterocycles, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear fusion reactions, nuclear energy storage reactions and materials. Statistical mechanics, quantum modeling, thermodynamics, and still gravitational detection from my earlier studies.
You are saying “MRI” as through it is new and wonderful. But I saw it, essentially in the form we still have it today, more than 40 years ago when the first developers came to show it. And it is still monopolized by a few. It is still centralized and expensive. It is not flexible. It is not accessible to everyone. And the alternatives, the research is not truly global, open, verifiable, shared with all. The algorithms for MRI are more complicated and less efficient than they ought to be – because they still keep using one big single axis magnet when many magnets and other sensors can make it faster, lower cost, portable, bedside, emergency. The technologies are controlled by the manufacturers too much ( I will review it again, I try to keep track of all technologies, at least periodically and by sampling and analysis). And fragmented from state to state, country to country, place to place, group to group. And not accessible to all.
I am a bit tired. I can see gaps in what I am saying. Things change, but some things are not changing, but ought to.
