Allegedly they have the “fastest MRI machine in the state, possibly the country” (according to the receptionist). (Apparently they have a 3T.) True to the receptionist’s word, the technician promised the scan would take 7 minutes, but it only took 5.5.
I’ve had a bunch of tests in the office and they have all kinds of (what seems to me to be) very advanced technology in their basement. However … Their elevator is ancient, slow, claustrophobic and a little scary. Riding it, one wouldn’t anticipate the technology one encounters after.
Anyway, I think it’s pretty funny that they have a sign - mounted at adult eye level - seemingly to provide instructions for someone who’s never ridden an elevator before.
edit: Replaced photo with one with identifying info censored.
One of the loose ideas I remember from university was one professor talking about the progress of technology, concluding with something like “every invention is a logical step up from the previous one, built on increasingly intricate understanding of the way the world works and on more refined designs to employ our understanding. Except for MRI machines. If aliens landed tomorrow and we showed them our inventions, they’d be pleased to see how our progression accumulated, but at some point they’ll take one look at the MRI and say what the actual fuck is this.”
Another time he described MRI technology in our current time “like if the Crusaders had microwaves”.
To this day, any time an actually interesting innovation gets described, I still feel like it’s nothing compared to MRI tech. Really. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it. What the actual fuck is this.
Aaand then you put a bunch of enslaved lightning in rocks to work to hallucinate away the noise from the image.
Here’s the thing. Digital computing fits very neatly in the orderly march of technological progression. So yes the algorithms might be very advanced but advanced algorithms are just part of doing tech.
Jiggling hydrogen atoms of conscious beings and watching what happens is stratospherically more sci-fi than even the coolest signal processing tech. Like on a fundamental level.
How amazing does the average person think “A”I”” is? This is an order of magnitude more impressive than any society-melting party trick.
You can do nigh anything with electronics and software thanks to the cumulative efforts of many. Using physical constructions to achieve a goal is way more impressive to me.
Not that either is something to sniff at.