Registered voters in the city of Los Angeles comes to 1.8 million. Voter turnout for the most recent March 5th, 2013, election was 16%. That's 288,000 people that have made major decisions that effect your future.* Even if the numbers are off by a few thousand, or even hundreds of thousands, I can confidently proclaim my utter disappointment with non-voting Angelenos.
This election will directly effect my neighbors lives. Top positions were up for grabs in this city ranging from mayor and city council candidates to the board of education. If you have a child in a public school. If you drive on a street with pot holes. If you live in a city where you question development projects and the allocation of money. If you complain about your home town in anyway, and didn't vote, then please take a look in the mirror before you start bitching to the rest of us.
How difficult is voting? Mail in ballots ensures even the laziest of voters can do their civic duty. Polling places are abundant, and open for thirteen hours on election day. News can be obtained from a variety of sources. Voting guides are sent to all who are registered. That's not even taking into account the barrage of advertisement accomplished by the candidates.
Los Angeles mayor candidates: Only two remain.
Local politics have a greater impact on your day-to-day lives then anyone in Washington. Fire. Police. Medical emergency response. Water and power. Construction. Education.** These are civic services we all see or use frequently. Why wouldn't you want a say in how they operate, and vote for the local leaders of these organizations?
Personally I think it's pretty pathetic given how important this city is to the nation and the world at large. Perhaps we're too cool for school. Too hip for politics. Or maybe we just don't give a fuck. Either way this city has numerous problems, and the leaders of tomorrow have been dictated by 16% of the voting populace. Democracy for the few at the expense of the many.***
*Throughout this post the use of "you," "your,", and "we," refer to registered voters in the city of Los Angeles.
**From NPR: "The results are worse for the two educational races -- LAUSD and L.A. Community College District -- the turnout there hovered in the 6 to 7 percent range." ***Almost feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy for the conspiracy minded individual.
Robots are a key component to modern life. Drones, and other unmanned vehicles, are used in military operations to help ensure friendly causalities remain low. Factories of all shapes and sizes rely on a cornucopia of automated machines to handle tasks previously done by humans. Entertainers for decades have used fully mechanical creations in a variety of medians. The relationship between robots and humans will continue to develop in new and exciting ways. Two of the more promising advances involve health care and emergency response.
The Atlantic (March 2013), featured an article "The Robot Will See You Now" by Jonathan Cohn. In it he highlights some of the technology awaiting us in the doctor's office of tomorrow. My favorite quote provides a distinct analogy any nerd can understand. "Think Dr. McCoy using his tricorder to diagnose a phaser injury on Star Trek, not the droid fitting Luke Skywalker with a robotic hand in Star Wars."
In place of a tricorder imagine Watson. No. Not the sidekick of some British detective. The IBM super computer that decimated the best Jeopardy minds our kind could muster. Instead of taking all of Trebek's money, Watson will be helping medical professionals diagnose patients.
Now some of my readers may be thinking that Watson is not a robot. To a certain extent this is correct. Watson does not have physical capabilities like a human. Yet the ability to learn from past experiences makes this machine exceptional. The tech behind Watson will also be invaluable for future robotic breakthroughs. What good is hardware without the software to run it?
Watson can process up to sixty million pages of text per second. Medical literature produces up to thirty-thousand articles a month. Adding to the complexity is the source material. Doctors across the globe, and throughout history share their knowledge through their own unique business practices. The information is diverse and vast. Cohn writes, "In medicine, it consists of physician notes dictated into medical records, long-winded sentences published in academic journals, and raw numbers stored online by public-health departments."
It doesn't take a genius to realize the impossibility of any medical professional assimilating all the data in his or her profession. With Watson they can utilize its processing power to quickly analyze relevant information, and hopefully boost the accuracy of the diagnosis. Remember that Watson learns from past mistakes, which means it's just a matter of time and practice before improvements take hold.* Tools like this can also help doctors think outside their field of expertise, and avoid professional tunnel vision.
Watson is not the only medical tech being explored around the world. The demand for doctors far out weighs the supply, and robots may be the answer. Obviously certain tasks will always need the human touch, but ask yourself something. If you needed immediate medical care, and the only option was a medical robot, then would you really turn down the help.
"In Brazil and India, machines are already starting to do primary care, because there's no labor to do it," says Robert Kocher, an internist, a veteran of McKinsey consulting, and a former adviser to the Obama administration.
Again this isn't a Star Wars scenario with a fully automated labor force at your local hospital. Humans will have their place in medical practice, but you may see more technicians on future check ups. Especially in parts of the world where doctors are few and far between.
The other exciting development in robotics focuses on emergency response. Popular Science (February 2013) has an article titled, "How to Build a Hero," that highlights some of the more recent robotic advancements.
In every major disaster first responders face dangerous scenarios to save the lives of others. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is working to change the playing field. In October of last year the Robotics Challenge began offering a two-million dollar prize for the team that prevails in two competitions. The first is in December of this year, and the second is in 2014.
One group comprises of Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanics Laboratory, the University of Pennsylvania, and two commercial robotics firms. Prototype after prototype will hopefully lead to the development of what will be called THOR, or Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot. (This field sure loves their acronyms.) Simultaneously the group is working on SAFFiR--Shipboard Autonomous Fire Fighting Robot--for the Office of Naval Research.
The two projects over lap significantly. The researched used for THOR can, and will be, applied to SAFFiR. Both require robots that can navigate in poor visibility, on unstable ground, and neutralize hazards like fire or radiation leaks. The old proverb, however, rings true. You have to learn to crawl before you can run. The teams primary concern at the moment is mastering mobility, and improving overall speed. This is easier said then done.
The human body stills kicks the lug nuts off any robot today. Nicolaus Radford, deputy project manager for NASA's Robonaut project, explains.
Replicating our own triumphant, two-legged, two-armed physiology with steel and lithium-ion batteries is difficult to do. Humans are fifteen times more energy-efficient at walking than the best humanoid robots, and human fat stores energy at thirty times the density of batteries.
The quote says it all. Robots consume more energy in addition to being slower and less stable. So don't freak out robot apocalypse aficionados. We are a long ways off from Terminators, or the anthropomorphic robots seen in I-Robot.
Radford's point is also a driving force behind non-humanoid robotic designs. One of the more famous example is Boston Dynamics' BigDog system (see video). There is also NASA's Robosimian that utilizes four general purpose limbs. Brett Kennedy of NASA argues, "...robots don't have to be restrained by our evolution." Having the machine perform properly under dangerous conditions is the priority. Can something akin to a spider bot navigate a power plant better then a humanoid? We shall see as the DARPA Robotic competition unfolds.
Developments in robotics will continue to revolutionize our modern society. More lives will be saved during natural disasters. Robots can literally go where no one has gone before. More patients will get treatment, and medical professionals will have tools utilizing some of the most advance artificial intelligence to date. Watson, THOR, SAFFiR, and BigDog are just the next step in this greater journey that started decades ago, and I'm thrilled that their are groups of passionate intelligent people pushing all of us along.
Sources: Popular Science, February 2013 & The Atlantic, March 2013
*Watson, however awesome, cannot satisfy the demands of global health care alone. It needs help. One of the major support tech groups are smart phones. This seems like a no brainer. More and more people are walking around with powerful cell phones that can be used to track a variety of medical data. Similar to a credit card reader, attachments can be used to measure blood pressure, insulin levels, and maybe even STDs. (Although having to urinate near my touch screen seems unpleasant at best.) Instead receiving vague answers from patients like--"I feel OK, I guess."--professionals can review hard data. Amazing.
