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Comment Re:Where's the conflict? (Score 1) 105

An enormous amount of medicine is placebo effect. That's why it still works even when the actual treatment is completely random. Physicians are trained to project confidence because it improves outcomes. Up until relatively recent times it was about the only thing that improved outcomes.

The combination of a human whose job it is to both project confidence and make you feel better, plus accurate diagnostics and treatment of the underlying problem will be unbeatable.

Comment Re:Where's the conflict? (Score 1) 105

In most developed nations nurses are not allowed to do much actual medicine without a physician's order. That's changing, and I expect it to change a lot more. Thus "a nurse practitioner with a computer." That combination is cheaper and is likely to be much more effective in the near future.

Yes, I've worked with lots of nurses. They do indeed hold childrens' hands and tell them it will be all right.

Comment Re:Where's the conflict? (Score 2, Insightful) 105

People love to conflate things, particularly when their only argument is emotional. "An AI can't hold your hand" sounds a lot better than "we're concerned that automatic monitoring software will mean 20% fewer nurses hanging out at the nursing station."

A pediatrician I worked with was asking me what I thought was going to happen with AI and healthcare, and pulled the same "AI can't hold the hand of a sick child and tell them it's going to be all right" line. I asked her when the last time she held a kid's hand was.

That IS something nurses (sometimes) do. Personally, I think they're in one of the best positions. The future of healthcare is a nurse practitioner with a computer.

Comment Re:Wait five years... (Score 2) 128

A new battery and all the tools to do the replacement are currently on sale for $10 Canadian. Looks like Americans still have to pay $50 US though, or $40 for just the battery.

https://canada.ifixit.com/prod...

If you need to pay someone to do it for you, $120 is probably less than you'd pay a plumber if you can't fix your own toilet, or a mechanic if you can't change your own oil.

Comment Re:Japanification (Score 1) 258

I repeat, borrowing money because your kids will pay for it is not a wise plan. To be specific, it's incredibly selfish even if it does work.

The public should borrow only to invest in projects expected to produce long term returns (e.g. infrastructure, research), or in extreme circumstances short-term to cover emergency expenses (e.g. war).

Individual people would be wise to follow that strategy too, although at least when they don't they're only screwing over themselves.

Comment Re:Legislation... (Score 1) 244

Energizer putting a couple of coatings on their batteries seems like a straightforward thing to do, provided it doesn't add too much to the cost. But what Luckyo originally referred to are the new requirements in the US that all consumer products containing button cells adhere to a particular standard. Previously it was only toys, now it's everything.

Here's the standard:
https://www.intertek.com/batte...

It will require lots of things to be redesigned, it will increase prices, and it will make replacing batteries more of a pain.

A more sensible regulation might have been to entirely ban small removable batteries in toys and recommend to parents that they don't use products containing such batteries while they have small children.

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