From punch cards to Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Microsoft is 35 years old. On November 20, 1985, Windows 1.0 was released.
IBM made some of its equipment compatible and called them Personal Computers.
The PC was born, with the first interfaces for graphic cards (GUI).
No matter what opinion you have of Windows, with its successes and failures, without Windows, technological miracles such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine, would not be possible and all of this is thanks to Microsoft.
So let’s take a look back at the history of the operating system that shaped everything.
Today, Microsoft has just released its latest Xbox X series video game console, which has recorded 1.5 million sales worldwide.
Xbox X Series Review
Before Windows, Microsoft already had a large share of the existing market.
A young Bill Gates started to design using MS-DOS an interface that had:
- WIMP GUI
- windows (Windows)
- icons
- mouse (Mouse)
- pointer (Pointer).
To make the use of PCs more accessible to users with less technical knowledge.
In those early days the development cycle was slow, including Apple, which had already made revolutionary advances in the graphical interface.
In 1984, Ridley Scott’s famous Apple commercial came out, in which he talked about “democratizing” computers, and was mentioned as the winner with wide advantages over Windows and MS-DOS.
It is impressive how nothing has changed, they were the best of times and the worst of times too.
The commercial alluded to the iron curtain and communism as a form of tyranny with a desire for power over people.
By 1987 the i286 processors appeared, with Windows 2.0, and the legal battle between Apple and Microsoft for plagiarism began.
In the end Microsoft won.
The first version that most people remember is the version of Windows 95, backed by Rolling Stones advertising.
My first computer was a Compaq presario 386, at the tender age of 13.
I felt like the richest kid in the world, with a 4 gig hard drive computer, and a third generation processor, that could barely run Hotmail, some Yahoo chats, and Pain.
Windows 3.0, released in 1990, was when Microsoft really took the GUI to the next level.
With a 16 color palette, better printing support, and more.
A new GUI called Program Manager was included.
Which was a much more intuitive way to organize applications in a tile-based manner.
Around this time, Microsoft also began to include a new invention, Internet Explorer, the first commercially successful web browser.
The application that would forever change the way we humans consume information today.
Ironically most not through Explorer, but through its competitor Google Chrome which has 90% of the market.
Windows 3.0 was a massive success, with half a million copies sold in the first ten days.
And it propelled Microsoft into the big leagues.
It was at this point that Microsoft began to target the desktop PC market, rather than just the corporate market for which MS-DOS was originally designed.
Windows was becoming increasingly popular and the company took the wonderful advantage of including Internet Explorer in the package to make sure it stayed that way.
Microsoft’s already huge share of the desktop computer market began to grow ever larger.
And it wasn’t until Windows 95 in 1995 that the company began to lose its grip on the market.
Windows 95 was supposed to be a complete overhaul of the operating system, and it was the first version to sport the now iconic Start menu.
It was also the first version of Windows to be sold as a retail package.
With the inclusion of a floppy disk, and the first version of Windows to be sold as a complete package, rather than just a boxed upgrade.
Microsoft had finally begun to target the home computer market with Windows.
And it was this release that would begin the slow decline of Windows’ influence in the PC market.
Windows 3.0 Logo Era
Windows 95 was the first operating system to become a verb.
A “PC” in the 1990s was synonymous with Windows, and it was the operating system that was also responsible for the massive growth of the PC itself.
Without Windows, the PC would have been a toy for hobbyists, and without the PC, we wouldn’t be here today.
Windows 95 was a monumental change in the way Windows worked, and it was the first version of Windows that really began to take advantage of the resources available.
It was the first version of Windows to include a Plug and Play stack, the first to include a registry and the first to include a TCP/IP interface.
Many technological advances have taken place since the beginning of what would be known as the dot-com bubble, which burst in the year 2000.
Millions of dollars evaporated in projects that led to nothing, but the giants that today dominate the world were born:
Peter Thiel in his book From Zero to One tells the story of what it was like to live through an era of unparalleled euphoria in the 90s.
One of his chapters is called: party like it’s 1990.
Dot-com bubble – Wikipedia
It seems as if it was part of a bygone era, or as if 100 years had passed instead of 35.
But today computers and the Internet are ubiquitous in our lives.
Not even Bill Gates himself, with his wildest imagination, would have imagined that his efforts to bring a computer to every home 35 years ago.
They would have materialized not only in a computer in every one of our pockets, but will quickly become in the next few years a computer in every object with which we interact.
Right now they are already in our televisions, cell phones, refrigerators, air conditioners, light bulbs and blinds.
But soon you won’t be able to imagine a hammer without a smart chip inside it to help you more accurately nail a painting.
This is where we’ve come in 35 years.
A.I. could change Mexico's healthcare sector forever.
A recent report in Forbes mentions that Artificial Intelligences in medicine is being used to improve the care required in those specialized care facilities in the poorest parts of India:
The government of India has initiated the National E-Health Authority (NeHA) to bring a digital revolution in the healthcare sector.
The initiative involves the creation of a national information network, which will interconnect all public and private hospitals and healthcare centers.
The government has also taken steps to use technology such as telemedicine, mobile health, electronic health records (EHR) and health information systems (HIS) to improve accessibility.
In addition, the government has created regional cancer centers, AIIMS and super specialty hospitals for different specialties, such as cardiac hospitals.
In Mexico, the health sector employs 2.5 million people, representing 5% of paid jobs nationwide.
According to a study by liderempresarial.com, and according to milenio.com, there are around 280 thousand doctors working in our country today.
The same study indicates that there are 2.1 physicians and 2.9 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants.
This is clearly insufficient for a population that is getting sicker and older every year.
AI has the potential to play an important role in making healthcare more accessible and making early diagnostic systems available to the underserved.
By offering efficiencies and reducing costs, artificial intelligences in medicine can certainly play an important role in increasing the accessibility of specialized care in a crucial way.
In a country as large as Mexico, AI provides the opportunity for effective disease monitoring and management, particularly for diseases that spread rapidly.
At Grupo PTM, we are in advanced stages of using Artificial Intelligence for Diagnostics in Medicine, and yes, believe it or not, it is built on Windows OS.
Hand in hand with Brainomix, we are diagnosing strokes in less than 30 seconds.
We were the fastest company in diagnostic imaging delivering results in 30 minutes, but now, thanks to artificial intelligence, we are beating our own record with a 90% reduction in response time.
It is even possible to identify thrombi without the need for contrast medium application.
We are in the Gary Kasparov moment of medicine.
Soon, we will see AI being employed for the diagnosis of COVID as we wrote in this article, for the diagnosis of breast cancer, and virtually any disease that afflicts mankind.
PTM group 30-second diagnosis of cerebral infarction
So from MS-DOS to Artificial Intelligence applications, we must congratulate Microsoft for turning 35.
For if it hadn’t been for that nerdy kid playing in his high school with his old Xerox computer and boring MS-DOS commands, today we wouldn’t have the miracles that are improving our lives every day.
Congratulations, old Bill, and thanks for Microsoft and the PC, you have certainly improved everyone’s life.
2 thoughts on “Microsoft turns 35: from MS-DOS to Artificial Intelligence applied to Diagnostic Medicine in 30 seconds”
I am sorting out relevant information about gate io recently, and I saw your article, and your creative ideas are of great help to me. However, I have doubts about some creative issues, can you answer them for me? I will continue to pay attention to your reply. Thanks.
Thank you for your comment and I am glad to hear that my article has been helpful to you. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the creative issues you mentioned. Feel free to contact me directly through my Twitter or Facebook accounts with the ID @ubacilio. I am always open to discussing topics related to AI and other related topics. Thank you for your continued interest in my work, and I look forward to hearing from you.