A Doctor predicted death but the Patient lived. Doctor ridiculed.
Babrius Translation (The Unskilful Physician)
There lived a quack. And all but he could tell
A sick man not to fear; he’d soon be well:
“Diseases run their time, but then are over;”
The doctor came and said, “You won’t recover!
“Make all your preparations. You must die!
“I scorn to cheat: I’m not the man to lie.
“To morrow at the most you’ll scarce get o’er!”
He said, nor visited his patient more.
But, lo! the man from his disorder rose,
Pallid, and somewhat shaky on his toes.
Taking his walk, the doctor met him so:
“Good morrow ! How goes on the world below?”
“Oh! deadly lively! Lethe’s draught is flat!
“But if you’d know what hell’s high powers were at,
“Doctors just now incurr’d their fiercest threats,
“Because each sick man well so quickly gets.
“They were proscribing all. Among the first
“They talk’d of posting you. But forth I burst
“A little timid from the shadowy crowd,
“And suppliant before their sceptres bow’d;
“And sware to them the truth I could not hide,
“You were no doctor, but had been belied.”
How do you think an AI might simplify this fable? Here is one answer, and the illustration above was made from this simplification:
A Sick Man and the Boastful Doctor
A gloomy doctor told a bedridden man, “Prepare to die tomorrow—I won’t pretend you’ll live.” But the man rested, recovered, and soon took a gentle walk outside. Along the road he met the same doctor, who stared in surprise. “Good morning! How is the world of the dead?” the doctor joked. The man smiled. “Quite dull,” he said. “The judges there were furious with doctors for healing everyone too quickly. I assured them you were safe—after all, you’re no real doctor at all!”
Moral
True skill is proven by results, not by grim words or empty confidence.
Perry. #317