text based lifeform

A reason we need beneficial AGI: After five years of pain across many systems in her body (a broken foot from stepping off a curb, debilitating migraines, fatigue, joint pain and instability, etc), my wife was recently diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). Because the medical system is designed for individual specialties while hEDS affects every system in her body (orthopedics, cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, dermatology, etc), we spent five years seeing more doctors and specialists than in her whole life prior. Most doctors would only focus on what was relevant to their own specialty. We were lucky that her allergist (!!) put together the pieces after observing and hearing her full set of symptoms and issues. As human medicine has progressed, it seems like we increase doctors’ depth at the expense of breadth. We need better tools to be able to deliver depth and breadth simultaneously to patients. This is one promise of AGI if built right — reliable, individualized, affordable healthcare in your pocket, like a panel of today’s top doctors across every speciality working together in concert to keep you healthy (and without you needing to fax forms between them). There’s still a long way to go on the technology and on learning how to deploy it beneficially along with appropriate professional human oversight in high-stakes areas like medicine, but the promise is getting increasingly clear. Thoughtfully approached by technology developers, healthcare providers, governments, and society, there’s hope for much better care for every member of all of our families (including our non-human furry ones).