Therapy Versus Enhancement with Healthcare and Mobile Technology – The Horse Has Already Left the Barn

This is a good article from the Orange County Register and it makes some very good points. Yes the horse has already left the barn here and I agree with the point made that there is confusion between therapy and enhancement and where does the line draw. The problem here is that the line keeps moving, almost daily, so how do we keep up and make the determination between the two? We all fight that battle no matter what level of technology knowledge we are at.

Obviously if you are diagnosed with a disease or condition, treatment will follow or treatment options I should say will be given by a doctor. But what about these options? There’s the million dollar question sometimes. In the clinical area things are jumping around with needing to know up front about allergies, family history, etc. to allow for better decisions and when you don’t have this, it’s a shoot from the hip scenario. When you do have the information available, its an algorithmic chore to decipher all of it for a conclusive educated decision. Sometimes shooting from the hip looks easier by far and is all we have had until the last number of years with extensive data base information has become available. The world is complicated with a lot of information today and to try and just rely on our little brains 100% is impossible.

Yup, our social structure is changing and you would almost have to be living under a rock to have not noticed some of this, as it leads to frustration and furry at times and the world continues to be more complex. I get my fill of it too at times just writing this blog!

Back on track, what is augmentation, and how is it affecting you? The devices are here and growing and it’ no longer a Star Wars movie out there. How are we reacting to some of this? Do we like some of the technology better than other parts? How will those who have it use it to negotiate and deal with those who do not participate? We are getting smarter, but do we like it? That’s a loaded question and even myself I ponder this one a lot and openly joke about wanting to grow up to be a dumb blonde at some point (grin). It takes “gear shifting” upstairs to survive some of this from my own personal point of view.

When Congress is debating the dollars spent on healthcare, is augmentation included? It almost has to be as again the line keeps moving around all the time. Quality of life with technology certainly falls under some of this gray area too. Why should an individual suffer when there is technology that will offer better quality of life? Why are some individuals being directed to report data and others are not and continue to be non participants?

With technology we are all opting for some type of augmentation all the time, with faster and more efficient ways of doing things that has become available with mobile technology, but again we need balance to ensure all the proper roads to success are given to do right. There are also those who will take such information and use it for financial gain, keep the eyes in the back of your head open by all means and be aware.

The question lies, are we augmenting or treating, or maybe a little of both, and the answers can change every day so read up and try to keep up on some of what is here today and what lies in the future for your own good and also don’t lose track of the “human” side of all of this while you are at it as balance needs to co-exist so we are not human drones being a slave to technology but rather benefiting instead. BD

Humanity+, a group of inventors, futurists and free-thinkers that look for ways to promote happier, smarter and healthier lives, will convene in Irvine this weekend to discuss the evolving state of the human condition. The keynote speakers include futurist-author-inventor Alex Lightman, who agreed to answer a few questions by email.

Human intelligence has been augmented technologically for thousands of years. Language, writing, printing, telecommunications and the internet have enabled global scale thought across societies. The consequences have been enormous. In the near future human intelligence at the individual and social will continue to be increased through methods such as the seamless integration of real-time coordination and knowledge sharing on mobile devices. On a longer timescale brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence will dramatically extend and amplify the human capabilities.

While humans and technology have been evolving together for some time, I believe the increasing rate of change will lead to major changes in social structure. Citizens will choose a future with increased transparency in government and business, greater connection to issues of climate and environment, and increased peace and community on a global scale. Increases in the complexity of the world will drive human intelligence amplification, and a better understanding of larger issues will be what society needs to improve itself.

Most people are seriously uninformed about the extent to which we’ve already crossed the line between therapy and enhancement. Over 10%, or 33 million Americans, are cyborgs, and have mechanical and/or electrical parts as part of their body. This doesn’t count contact lenses or glasses, but surgically implanted or improved parts like artificial hips and artificial hearts. The horse has already left the barn with respect to wide-scale human augmentation, and we are about to experience a commercial explosion to make people stronger, more injury resistant, thinner, and immune.

Homo Sapiens has been using tools for about as long as we’ve been a species, and tool use thus an essential aspect of being human. We use tens of thousands of tools, and if you could specific software applications, it’s possible we use millions of tools. Augmentation is in one sense just a hands free way of using tools.

Augmentation has happened and will continue to happen to greater numbers of people and with greater quality and variety. The bigger question about augmentation is how long nearly 100% of our $2.4 trillion of medical spending will be for therapy, as an increasing number of people will demand enhancement, especially if their tax dollars are going to pay for medical
attention. One of the key purposes of Humanity+ is to speak for the rights of the people now and in the future to augment and enhance themselves free from prejudice and restriction.