By Request Serial Post Part 2

For the second part of 'By Request', we approach the ideas behind medical advances and Dr. Asimov's humanoid robots and Artificial Intelligence. Hope you enjoy ...

"             Due, in part, to our exposure to Science Fiction in television and movies, new advances in robotics have been made in recent years. No longer content to just dream of humanoid robots, scientists in Japan are constructing bipedal, thinking androids to assist in a variety of tasks including advertising and even some base tests in elderly care. While there is not yet true Artificial Intelligence, like the positronic brains favored by Sci-Fi writers, it cannot be far away. All it takes is one writer (or reader) to say ‘What if…’ Isaac Asimov brought up a few of these ‘What ifs’, along with various legal, philosophical, and human rights issues in his book ‘I, Robot’. He presented a world with robots as sentient beings programmed with a set of three laws designed to protect humankind from robotic revolution. The ‘Three Laws’ were thought for a long time to be a guideline for robots but as the growth of Artificial Intelligence is progressing so slowly, they will be outdated and useless by the time full AI is achieved. Non-humanoid robots are performing a large number of tasks that are hazardous to human life. They function as bomb disposal units in the military, as assembly workers (in simplified forms) on fast moving assembly lines, and even go to space as explorers to discover if humans should follow. All from a writer, and a reader, saying ‘What if…’

                Advances in medical science have come from Science Fiction writings. Lasers and cautery devices were first dreamed of in Science Fiction. It was decided that, if lasers could be used for mass destruction, then why not for the good of man? Television shows like “Star Trek” showed doctors using fine tuned lasers and full-body scanning to help patients and eliminate diseases. Similar devices used today are MRI (Magnetic Resonant Imaging) machines and the 3-D body-scan machines at our airports.  Doctors now routinely use lasers to repair minor eye defects and in targeting systems for invasive procedures like brain surgery. Robotics is being used in rehabilitation machines like the Loco-Mat machine used at Bethesda Naval Hospital for locomotor gait training (Goldberg 22). Prosthetic devices have benefited from robotics in the past few years. Prosthetic legs are being designed with gait assisting motors and hardened bone structures. Prosthetic arms have been modified with joints maneuvered by small servomotors and load sensors to assist in lifting and gripping objects. New experiments in the area of neural transmitters are making headway with limbs and fine-motor control to improve recovery from catastrophic injury. Can the ‘Bionic Man’ be far behind?"