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"One can see the free software movement as a precusor for a "free hardware" or "free wetware" movement--one that will provide free libraries of designs for biological or nanotechnological products that replicators can be programmed to churn out."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Robot Surgeon | ||
| An autonomous robotic surgeon. |
| The robot took Joyce’s still body away from Garry, who was flung against the wall when he tried to protect his wife. Then Joyce’s body was strapped to a flat slab-like stone table, the robot unscrewed a metal plate from its own great chest, then unscrewed its own right hand at the wrist, reached into the hole revealed in its chest, withdrew a wrist with a set of surgical tools instead of fingers, screwed the strange new hand into place on its right arm, and approached the table where Joyce lay, flexing scalpel, forceps, clamp and an index finger of sutures on its new hand.
 (Surgeon robot from 'Winged Planet' by Adam Chase)) |
| Technovelgy from Winged Planet,
by Adam Chase. Published by Amazing Stories in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Isaac Asimov uses this same phrase in Bicentennial Man (1976):
"When can the operation be carried through, Doctor?" he asked.
Softly, with that certain inalienable note of respect that a robot always
used to a human being, the surgeon said, "I am not certain, sir, that I
understand how or upon whom such an operation could be performed."
There might have been a look of respectful intransigence on the
surgeon's face, if a robot of his sort, in lightly bronzed stainless
steel, could have such an expression - or any expression. Andrew Martin
studied the robot's right hand, his cutting hand, as it lay motionless on
the desk. The fingers were long and were shaped into artistically
metallic, looping curves so -graceful and appropriate that one could
imagine a scalpel fitting them and becoming, temporarily, one piece with
them. There would be no hesitation in his work, no stumbling, no
quivering, no mistakes. That confidence came with specialization, of
course, a specialization so fiercely desired by humanity that few robots
were, any longer, independently brained. A surgeon, of course, would have
to be.
Compare directly to the automaton steam surgeon from The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1828) by Jane Webb Loudon, robot surgery from Secret of the Buried City (1939) by John Russell Fearn, the robot surgeon hand from War Veteran (1955) by Philip K. Dick, the phymech robot doctor from Wanted in Surgery (1957) by Harlan Ellison.
For automated medicine, compare to the emergency treatment tank from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz, the shipboard medical treatment from Contagion (1950) by Katherine MacLean, the
Gobathian from Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) by Clifford Simak, the surgical homeostatic unit from Now Wait For Last Year (1966) by Philip K. Dick, the diagnostat from The Man in the Maze (1969) by Robert Silverberg, electronic body analyzer from The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton, the crechepod from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert and the autosurgeon from Altered Carbon (2003) by Richard Morgan.
Thanks to SFFAudio for pointing this story out.
Facing him from behind the desk was the surgeon The nameplate on the desk
included a fully identifying series of letters and numbers which Andrew
didn't bother with. To call him Doctor would be quite enough.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Winged Planet
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and Technology by Adam Chase
Tech news articles related to Winged Planet
Tech news articles related to works by Adam Chase
Robot Surgeon-related
news articles:
- Robot Surgeons To Be Fully Autonomous
- Medical Assistant Robot May Roam The Halls Of Hospitals
| Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones |
| It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned! |
| Tactile Skin Supplier Map |
| Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo |
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