http://www.aquick.org/blog/2005/01/14/should-the-ignorant-be-deprived-of-capabilities-about-which-they-dont-know-enough-to-demand/ entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:06:22 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.aquick.org/blog/2005/01/14/should-the-ignorant-be-deprived-of-capabilities-about-which-they-dont-know-enough-to-demand/comment-page-1/#comment-174 Anne Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:40:48 +0000 /?p=510#comment-174 This happens in medicine all the time. As a physician, I am called to interpret data and make choices for my patients. When I am prescribing a blood pressure medication to a patient, I can choose between multiple different classes of drugs, and then within that class, different medications, many of which have different effects and mechanisims of action, which may affect the long-term health of my patient. As a professional who has taken an oath, I am ethically bound to make good decisions for my patients. However, I know that other professionals do not have such a duty. As technology becomes more complex, lay people will have to depend upon professionals to make decisions for them - but where is the Hippocrates of the computer world? This happens in medicine all the time. As a physician, I am called to interpret data and make choices for my patients. When I am prescribing a blood pressure medication to a patient, I can choose between multiple different classes of drugs, and then within that class, different medications, many of which have different effects and mechanisims of action, which may affect the long-term health of my patient. As a professional who has taken an oath, I am ethically bound to make good decisions for my patients. However, I know that other professionals do not have such a duty.
As technology becomes more complex, lay people will have to depend upon professionals to make decisions for them – but where is the Hippocrates of the computer world?

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