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Robots in Healthcare: What the Future Holds
Consider a modern twist on the Trolley Problem which refers to a series of thought experiments first introduced in the 1960s. You see a baby in the path of a runaway trolley rushing down a slope. You can pull a lever that would change the direction of the trolley to hit a robot instead. The catch is that the baby has been manufactured in a lab through artificially programmed DNA while the robot is a state-of-the-art sentient companion able to ‘feel’ the entire spectrum of human emotions. Whom would you save?
Contemporary advancements in natural sciences with the aid of technology have enabled us to envision a world where such beings not only exist but would (hopefully) be well integrated within human society. These advancements result from a heightened interdisciplinarity of the sciences in question. AI-enabled therapy is one such field that personifies the integration of not just a multifaceted perspective of the world but also of the kind of species we can be.
Cyborg, for instance, is no longer just a fantastical member of the Justice League; it is now an augmented human species category. Neil Harbisson was born with an achromatic vision (complete color blindness) and created a sensory system called The Cyborg Antenna that allows him to ‘hear’ colors through audible vibrations in his head. The device which is permanently attached to his…
