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That's the point exactly. What a weirdly unsatisfying ending. All this emotional trauma over a false positive. It also really underscores an extremely critical
by mfoy_ 10y ago
That's the point exactly. What a weirdly unsatisfying ending. All this emotional trauma over a false positive.
It also really underscores an extremely critical question with society: When the system is inflexible, and uncaring, what recourse do you have when it fails you? Imagine the hopelessness, the bleak future, of the world turning its back on you because of a mistake. I can only imagine this is what it's like to be falsely convicted of a crime... or failing a drug test that you shouldn't have failed.
I think there's even a lesson for us technical folks here: When the systems we design are too automated, and too rigid, we are removing all compassion. Now if the system is "perfect" there's no problem, but even Google hasn't been able to completely perfect their systems. People still become the victim of false DMCA takedowns, etc.
I guess at the end of the day, the moral is to "Remember the person."
- maxerickson 10y agoHere's the thing, it isn't just automated systems. Large institutions do the same thing. People have less and less of the full picture and act more and more as a component of the system. In this case it appears that the social worker had enough of the full picture to inject some measure of sanity, but I really wonder if the nurses understood the statistics related to the tests well enough to treat her like shit over them.