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The Character of Information Reading Brian's thread on X recently, reminded me of this paper (attached). In the 80's I became fascinated by, and worked in, a novel discipline in medicine called Clinical Informatics, long before such a thing existed in the economy. Information in medicine has a long and torturous history, in no small part because new information can make predicate treatments unnecessary. For example, a now old medication, cimetidine (Tagamet), nearly eliminated stomach ulcer surgery inside of 18 months. If you're a GI surgeon, you might see that this poses a problem, much like the one AI will impose upon radiologists over the next 3 years. Good information eliminates doing the unnecessary. Medicine caught on early. The Hippocratic Oath of 460 BC has this little gem: "I will pass on all precepts and lectures (information) and all other learning to my son's and to those of my teachers, and to those pupils duly appointed and sworn, and to none others." No surprise to anyone here, information has power, even in 460 BC. Today we are blowing past maps to information (search), and taping directly into knowledge (the compression of information), hopefully adding insight as humans final value-add; well we'll can hope. Attached is a report by W. Curtiss Preist, Ph.D., who took a deep and insightful dive into the economics of information. I have found this exceptionally helpful in the days before Google, Facebook, and much of what we see today, this work remains useful today. Quoting from the document is his definition of the purpose of information: "Thus the fundamental function of information in human activity is to affect the efficiency of achieving outcomes." In this definition, as a two handed Economist, Priest acknowledges that bad information can produce bad outcomes, and unwilling to hide it. Sadly, this paper has become very difficult to find on the internet, not sure why. Regardless, it would be tragic if it were to disappear, so enjoy. Relevant to AI interests you'll find Priest's treatment of value-add (pages 29-31) helpful as AI compresses all prior value-added steps. Because it is in the original format, pagination and formatting is wonky, but the information in this piece is exquisite, you will not be disappointed. Please let me know what you think. //Thomas A. Coss, RNReading Brian's thread on X recently, reminded me of this paper (attached). In the 80's I became fascinated by, and worked in, a novel discipline in medicine called Clinical Informatics, long before such a thing existed in the economy. Information in medicine has a long and torturous history, in no small part because new information can make predicate treatments unnecessary. For example, a now old medication, cimetidine (Tagamet), nearly eliminated stomach ulcer surgery inside of 18 months. If you're a GI surgeon, you might see that this poses a problem, much like the one AI will impose upon radiologists over the next 3 years. Good information eliminates doing the unnecessary. Medicine caught on early. The Hippocratic Oath of 460 BC has this little gem: "I will pass on all precepts and lectures (information) and all other learning to my son's and to those of my teachers, and to those pupils duly appointed and sworn, and to none others." No surprise to anyone here, information has power, even in 460 BC. Today we are blowing past maps to information (search), and taping directly into knowledge (the compression of information), hopefully adding insight as humans final value-add; well we'll can hope. Attached is a report by W. Curtiss Preist, Ph.D., who took a deep and insightful dive into the economics of information. I have found this exceptionally helpful in the days before Google, Facebook, and much of what we see today, this work remains useful today. Quoting from the document is his definition of the purpose of information: "Thus the fundamental function of information in human activity is to affect the efficiency of achieving outcomes." In this definition, as a two handed Economist, Priest acknowledges that bad information can produce bad outcomes, and unwilling to hide it. Sadly, this paper has become very difficult to find on the internet, not sure why. Regardless, it would be tragic if it were to disappear, so enjoy. Relevant to AI interests you'll find Priest's treatment of value-add (pages 29-31) helpful as AI compresses all prior value-added steps. Because it is in the original format, pagination and formatting is wonky, but the information in this piece is exquisite, you will not be disappointed. Please let me know what you think. //Thomas A. Coss, RN
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Four Elements of Information In Clinical Informatics we have a notion of what constitutes information, and it has four essential requirements. Information must be: Accurate Relevant Timely Trustworthy All four all the time, 3 out of 4 is just noise. Of late #4 has been the most troublesome. Trustworthiness is addressed by way of source and multi-source validation, which I presume AI addresses. Still I'm troubled by some of what I'm seeing and why XAI appeals to me. One thing I think we know is that people want the best truth upon which to make individual decisions. I'm hopeful that we'll get there. Thanks, Brian, for giving organization to this Goat Rodeo and making it fun.In Clinical Informatics we have a notion of what constitutes information, and it has four essential requirements. Information must be: Accurate Relevant Timely Trustworthy All four all the time, 3 out of 4 is just noise. Of late #4 has been the most troublesome. Trustworthiness is addressed by way of source and multi-source validation, which I presume AI addresses. Still I'm troubled by some of what I'm seeing and why XAI appeals to me. One thing I think we know is that people want the best truth upon which to make individual decisions. I'm hopeful that we'll get there. Thanks, Brian, for giving organization to this Goat Rodeo and making it fun.
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