Vitaltech-How much responsibility do they have?
- kfwilson6
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Vitaltech-How much responsibility do they have?
How much responsibility falls on VitalTech for offering the Final Notice option? Should they have stuck with an alert simply stating the user should see a doctor as soon as possible? Do you think users would take a notification to see the doctor as seriously as a Final Notice? Is the Final Notice equivalent to a doctor's diagnosis of a life-threatening illness?
- melissy370
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- Kat Berg
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The thing that has been rolling through my head is a correlation is not a causation. Where I'm going with this is: in the last five years, since the advent of almost every teenager having a smartphone, depression, and suicide are way up! Does this make the phone companies responsible for these things? How about the parents who have read these statistics and still let their teen have a smartphone?
Now, the book seems to be making a clear causation line (I'm only partway through the book, so I am admittedly missing the whole picture), and some of you have made really good suggestions as to how they could have avoided the murder, but to me it is more a perfect storm of situations. Increased accessibility to guns + the new technology + decreased interaction with others = more potential for murderous outcomes.
What do you all think?
- kfwilson6
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Kat Berg, the Final Notice didn't make anyone grab a gun and kill anyone. Honestly, I saw the author's choice of situations for murder a little extreme. The death of the grocery store cashier just seemed a little out there. I would have expected revenge situations to be much more volatile situations like revenge for a physical attack or against criminals who committed violent acts but weren't given life sentences (vigilante type stuff).
- kfwilson6
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- melissy370
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Your idea is plausible. Once physicians receive it then they could council their patient on how to deal with it. This would hopefully rectify the problem of people panicking or losing hope.kfwilson6 wrote: ↑06 Mar 2018, 09:14 In reviewing your responses I realized that another option would have been to incorporate the Final Notice feature but not to send it to the user. In order to have that option available, the user would have to register the device with his doctor and VitalTech and the doctor and VitalTech medical staff would work together to review the patient's information and determine likely cause, treatment, and possible outcome. The Final Notice took away hope but I never got the impression it was absolutely meant to say there was nothing that could be done and the patient would die no matter what. Do you think this is a good solution to resolve the pros and cons of the Final Notice feature?
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Since the Final Notice feature was optional, it stands to reason that any special notice it made should be taken seriously. What would be the point of turning it on, otherwise? Although we saw with some user the temptation to to write it off as being a mistake in setup or a fluke would still be there, regardless of what the feature was called.
The feature is presented as even better, or maybe it's called worse, than a doctor's diagnosis in the book, because we are never given any instance or implication that it could be wrong. Nor are we given any indication that the outcome could change. A doctor can make mistakes, but the creators even say that people have died early after receiving the notice from unforeseen circumstances, but never late. Of course, the test size was small. We only see a relatively short amount of time pass and only a small selection of users. Still, the implication is that once the notice arrives, the clock is ticking down for you and there is no escape.
If VitalTech is responsible for anything, it is not for the actions of the watch users, but rather the way in which the information was presented. To be in the best interests of the users, I think they should have considered how people would react and chosen a different marketing strategy.
- kfwilson6
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Your post made me think about the use of cellphones. So many car accidents happen because people are using their cellphones in the car, despite the fact that states are passing laws against texting and driving. Is there any fault on the part of the phone company for this irresponsible use? I don't think there is. And to some, this may not seem like an equivalent situation but texting and driving causes many deaths. I would think even more than if a Final Notice option were a reality.ssmithy wrote: ↑07 Mar 2018, 13:40 I think VitalTech should definitely take responsibility for some of the negative outcomes of the Final Notice aspect. Any technological invention like this has it's positive and negative ramifications and the company responsible should be prepared to deal with them both. That being said I don't know if replacing the "Final Notice" with a "See Your Doctor Immediately" would fulfill the Final Notice's purpose. A lot of people I know would push seeing their doctor off until later thus defeating the purpose of knowing that you are going to die.