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A Bit of History and Touch of Philosophy

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Digital Image Quality in Medicine

Part of the book series: Understanding Medical Informatics ((UMI))

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Abstract

When I was a math student, I was positively certain that all “history of mathematics” books were written by losers incapable of making real math breakthroughs. I was young and ignorant back then, but at least one of these vices was cured by time.

I think, therefore I am

Descartes, Principles of Philosophy

I am. I am, I exist, I think, therefore I am; I am because I think, why do I think? I don’t want to think anymore, I am because I think that I don’t want to be, I think that I … because … ugh!

Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This connects us to the Church-Turing principle, which in its essence states that computing devices reflect the way humans think and process data—the fundamental assumption that started the whole field of computer science. This is exactly what we observe with contemporary decision support in medicine.

  2. 2.

    “You are – your life, and nothing else,” as Sartre once suggested.

  3. 3.

    Borrowing from my favorite François Villon.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MGH Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Newton, MA, USA

    Oleg S. Pianykh

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  1. Oleg S. Pianykh
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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Pianykh, O.S. (2014). A Bit of History and Touch of Philosophy. In: Digital Image Quality in Medicine. Understanding Medical Informatics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01760-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01760-0_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01759-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01760-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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