The Picture Problem

The Picture Problem deals with how obscure our high tech imaging of today still is, in particular the imagery in two fields were debates are easily sparked: mammography and bombing. With the case of bombings, before the technology of today the pilots basically had to make an educated guess on when and where to launch the missile in order to get it to hit the target. In order to make sure the target was hit, the information needed to be good, and the missile needed to have a large range of effect. Modern photographic technology now allows us to zero in on a target using imagery, allowing us to use smaller, less damaging bombs with more accuracy. Gladwell uses the example of bombing a target inside of a house: before, you would destroy the entire house; now we can pinpoint the missile strike to take out just the kitchen. In mammography, X-ray technology has developed to a point where we can now find lumps a centimeter across, and find small deposits of calcium that may indicate a tumor. The advanced technology has allowed radiologists to find these lumps and catch potentially deadly breast cancer tumors in their early stages, while they can still be semi-easily treated (easily being used in regards to the treatments of an advanced stage cancer). Thousands of lives have been saved. But the problem with both of these instances lies not with the picture, as the title would suggest, but in how that picture is interpreted, or the human element. It takes a human to determine if a dark area in a luggage X-ray is a bomb or if it's something else. A human is needed to say that yes, that truck is carrying a missile or no, that truck is just an oil rig. A mammogram may show calcium deposits, but whether that means cancer or not is up to the judgement of the radiologist. With mammography, it's very easy to sue your doctor if he says a lump is cancerous and it turns out to be benign, or vice versa. In the war in Iraq, people were outraged because we were bombing locations where targets were nowhere near, just because the information, the human element, wasn't accurate or good enough. We need to improve on the human side of things before we can truly advance, as an image, no matter how crisp, clear, and perfect it may be, is only as good as the human interpretation given to it.