I actually think that it is both predictable and also a merit to our society that doctors are dumber than they used to be. Following Whitehead’s precept that “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them”, we’d ideally at once broaden the pool of potentially qualified medical practitioners and reduce the difficulty of succeeding at their profession.
If, in the future, any Homer Simpson can safely suture your wounds and chemotherapize your cancers, would you insist they had the reading skills of a medical student of the 1860s?
I don’t mind if Homer Simpson sutures my wounds, as long as there’s a pathway to me getting in front of a real brilliant person if I have a tricky health problem. The problems start when Homer Simpson starts thinking he’s brilliant and starts blaming you when he can’t figure out what’s wrong with you. And when you can’t tell him apart from the real brilliant people.
I actually think that it is both predictable and also a merit to our society that doctors are dumber than they used to be. Following Whitehead’s precept that “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them”, we’d ideally at once broaden the pool of potentially qualified medical practitioners and reduce the difficulty of succeeding at their profession.
If, in the future, any Homer Simpson can safely suture your wounds and chemotherapize your cancers, would you insist they had the reading skills of a medical student of the 1860s?
I don’t mind if Homer Simpson sutures my wounds, as long as there’s a pathway to me getting in front of a real brilliant person if I have a tricky health problem. The problems start when Homer Simpson starts thinking he’s brilliant and starts blaming you when he can’t figure out what’s wrong with you. And when you can’t tell him apart from the real brilliant people.