Falling Asleep At The Wheel: Why Watson Beat Us.

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | Comments Off on Falling Asleep At The Wheel: Why Watson Beat Us.

Mike Magee

Watching Watson, the computer, humiliate our human race on Jeopardy (combined with in-your-face strife and turmoil here and around the world as witnessed on Cable TV) simply reinforces how little we understand about our physiologic selves (1).

I’ve mentioned before an interview I did some years back of Craig Venter, the gene genius, where I asked, “What percentage of the knowledge necessary to adequately care for human beings do we currently possess?” To which he replied, “Less than 1%.” (2)

Then last week the CDC made news with a report on sleep, or rather the lack of it.(3) Apparently, we Americans make a habit of not getting enough sleep, and the CDC highlighted how that leads to safety concerns.

All of this is important of course, but what interests me more is the mystery of sleep, or more importantly what physiologic insights might be gleaned by a better understanding of sleep. (READ MORE….)