2011-06-29
Explanation
This comic satirizes the fear of replacing human doctors with medical analysis machines by comparing them to something people already use: the internet. A woman complains, "Ugh. They''re replacing human doctors with medical analysis machines." Her friend asks, "Why is that bad?" and the first woman responds, "I take it you''ve never consulted the internet for medical advice." The implication is that machine-based diagnosis will be as anxiety-inducing and unreliable as WebMD.
The "Later..." panel confirms this fear by showing the medical machine in action. It tells a patient, "It''s almost certainly just stress or a cold," which is reassuring -- but then immediately adds, "But hey, maybe it''s cancer too." This perfectly captures the experience of searching symptoms online, where every search for a headache or cough leads to a terrifying list of worst-case diagnoses. The machine mimics the internet''s tendency to present unlikely catastrophic possibilities alongside mundane explanations, leaving the patient no better off emotionally than if they had just Googled their symptoms.
The votey panel shows the machine continuing with "Or maybe not BUT maybe so," an endless hedge that captures the maddening lack of certainty that characterizes both internet symptom checkers and, honestly, a fair amount of real medicine. The comic works as both a critique of automated medicine and a self-aware joke about how humans already subject themselves to machine-based medical anxiety voluntarily through web searches.