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18 Future Developments
18.2 The Distal Multi-Corder
The Star Trek tricorder has elements which we know how to construct. Just outside
your neck the following technology can be employed: Visual monitory of your
carotid artery to get your pulse rate; IR reflection to get your blood oxygenation;
electronic nose to get any pheromones, steroids, volatiles from drugs, and other
skin expellants as well as emissions from skin microbiota; a microphone to get
your throat and lung noises; an ultrasonic reflector to get your skin blood vessel
velocities; a CCD camera to get your skin tone, signs of age, and possible moles,
sunspots, or melanoma spots; an infrasound emitter and detector to get tissue
elasticity, and, for the more invasive device, a laser blaster to knock off a microspeck
of skin and vacuum to capture it, then analyze DNA, etc. There is no reason in
principle that the detection systems just mentioned could not be miniaturized and
placed into a battery-operated hand-held device.
18.3 The Doc-Tour Code
Someday real soon, we will have a database of all reviewed documents on disease
medical studies, of all known diseases, of all verified symptoms of diseases, of all
known efficacious medications for given diseases, of all medication side effects, and
of all substantiated techniques for diagnosis.
A parallel code, ‘The Cur-ator’, finds all current methods for treatment and/or
cure, with probabilities for effectiveness and for downsides. The program would
also make suggestions for more clinical observations and tests, and patient data
gathering. Also retrievable are demoted, failed or fake techniques, and reasons for
ineffectiveness. Each element of the code’s information must have been thoroughly
reviewed by panels of accredited physicians.
Eventually, people will not die from disease, becoming virtually immortal,
incurring social and biological challenges.
18.4 The Imi-tator Code
Someday soon, we will have a computer code that can perform predictions of what
a given drug of known molecular structure will do if introduced into a human
bloodstream, all from modeling of the human system, with real examples in the
literature to check and fine-tune the model.
18 Future Developments
18.2 The Distal Multi-Corder
The Star Trek tricorder has elements which we know how to construct. Just outside
your neck the following technology can be employed: Visual monitory of your
carotid artery to get your pulse rate; IR reflection to get your blood oxygenation;
electronic nose to get any pheromones, steroids, volatiles from drugs, and other
skin expellants as well as emissions from skin microbiota; a microphone to get
your throat and lung noises; an ultrasonic reflector to get your skin blood vessel
velocities; a CCD camera to get your skin tone, signs of age, and possible moles,
sunspots, or melanoma spots; an infrasound emitter and detector to get tissue
elasticity, and, for the more invasive device, a laser blaster to knock off a microspeck
of skin and vacuum to capture it, then analyze DNA, etc. There is no reason in
principle that the detection systems just mentioned could not be miniaturized and
placed into a battery-operated hand-held device.
18.3 The Doc-Tour Code
Someday real soon, we will have a database of all reviewed documents on disease
medical studies, of all known diseases, of all verified symptoms of diseases, of all
known efficacious medications for given diseases, of all medication side effects, and
of all substantiated techniques for diagnosis.
A parallel code, ‘The Cur-ator’, finds all current methods for treatment and/or
cure, with probabilities for effectiveness and for downsides. The program would
also make suggestions for more clinical observations and tests, and patient data
gathering. Also retrievable are demoted, failed or fake techniques, and reasons for
ineffectiveness. Each element of the code’s information must have been thoroughly
reviewed by panels of accredited physicians.
Eventually, people will not die from disease, becoming virtually immortal,
incurring social and biological challenges.
18.4 The Imi-tator Code
Someday soon, we will have a computer code that can perform predictions of what
a given drug of known molecular structure will do if introduced into a human
bloodstream, all from modeling of the human system, with real examples in the
literature to check and fine-tune the model.