The game Deus Ex: Human Revolution is played against the backdrop of a near future dystopia of inequality, where humanity has developed robotic prosthetics that even surpass our natural limbs. Ever since playing this game, I have had an interest in the state of robotic prosthetics, because aside from the practical risks, there is also a massive philosophical issue. Should it be humanity’s role to interfere in either natural selection or God’s privilege of controlling human development? Hence, the main theme of the game series. However, we seem to be coming ever closer to actually having to start this societal debate, due to the almost exponential increases in the field of robotics.
Robotic exoskeletons and prosthetics have been worked on and developed for a very long time, almost since the start of the whole field itself. Swiss researchers have actually succeeded in robotic ‘soft’ muscle material, dramatically increasing the possibilities of robotics in or with humans. Their prototype is a worm-like piece of plastic material, capable of moving around. By bundling these, they managed to create robots that essentially act like muscles.
However, contrary to what people might expect, the applications that would be possible for this technology, are not in either business or defence fields. The Swiss are trying to use it to help people recover from severe injuries, mostly muscle-related ones. The importance of this specific form of robotics lies in the fact that it is strong enough to support the wearer, but without being hurtful or constrictive. For example, one project helps the wearer to support his/her torso, and restore a level of motor sensitivity.
I personally think that due to the huge impact robotics will have on healthcare, it should really be a focus of society. Robots can be much more precise than humans during operations, nanobots might be able to repair damage that is now unreachable, and prosthetics might restore almost all paralysed limbs and senses.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/12/these-soft-robotic-muscles-could-help-with-physical-therapy/
Hey Karim,
Very interesting article, thanks for your insight.
I have similar opinions on the fact, technology has so much potential benefits to humanity.
It does definitely depend on society to be responsible with such tech.
I also wrote in my blog enclosed below, about how AI could eventually replace surgeons,
specifically because of its precision and lack of fatigue.
please feel free to read it yourself. 🙂
https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl//2016/10/14/cannibalization-of-the-value-chain/
Hi Karim,
You’ve raised a very interesting topic of the progress in medicine and technology. For now, it seems that almost every part of the human body can be replaced with artificial organs or bionic limbs that can integrate with the wearer’s mind. As you said in your article, the main purpose is to help patients recover from their injuries so they can return to a normal life. The progress also goes one step further. The demand is higher than the supply and the list of people waiting for a transplant or for a new limb or muscle extends every year. Thus, scientists already experiment with growing body parts in the laboratory or simply they print organs with the help of bioprinters. Researchers also work with stem cells, that can be converted to any body tissue. I think that looking for the most efficient and reliable methods to replace human body parts in case of their failure are the fields that medicine will exploit over the next years. Apart from ethical aspects, there is this one question that comes to my mind. Since every part of our body, such as a heart, a kidney or a leg, can be replaced with an artificial substitute, does it mean that the science is close to finding a key to immortality? It looks as if with further developments in the robotics field, the opportunities are endless.
Hey Karim! Thank you for this interesting post. I share your opinion about integrating new technologies in healthcare industry. As you said, robots can be more precise than humans and I truly believe that robotic prosthetics will be the next step in modern medicine and will bring a lot of benefits. However, I still have some doubts about how much should robots replace humans. As any machine there is a risk of failure and if so, a robot can not be held responsible. Therefore, in my opinion, there are still some big steps to consider before developing a “perfect” robot. The future will be an interesting thing to see !