Crossing A Bridge.
My work requires I make reports. I need explain a lot. That’s why I’m enthusiastic about my first interactions with the AI program Chat GPT. My issue is crossing bridges. I like being psyched to start a task, and now I can have a first approximation of a report simply by texting a few words. I’m hoping to feel less exhausted for later stages of research, the better to complete and perfect what I set out to do. So far, it feels like I have an intern or personal assistant whose work needs conscious supervision, or I can pretend I’m the president supervising a diverse cabinet.
A lot of crippling brain disease involves disconnections. People think brain disease is caused by neurons. As a neurology resident I was blown away with “Disconnections in the Brain” which revolutionized a lot of people’s ideas about brain function. Autism for example surprised many when it was found to be more of a white matter disease, a problem making social and linguistic associations affecting axons more than neurons. Many deficits can be overcome by helping people with specific cognitive tasks. Helping a person jump over one or two barriers may give them a fulfilling life.
For example certain dyslexias and aphasias implicate specific visual modes of written synbolic interpretation. A medical doctor hasn’t the means to replace this module in the brain, yet AI can bridge the gap in some cases simply reading aloud. It raises the idea that that many cognitive deficits would far better be treated by computation than standard medical care. In that vein, I’m excited about two specific areas, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Personalized Assistance, the idea of having a computer perform basic functions which would otherwise be impossible to manage. We have here a game changer in computational treatment of neurological disease which is not to cure the problem medically, but rather to do an end run past the blocking element, building a bridge.
