This year’s DARPATech conference (a sort of show-and-not-really-tell affair) features a portable surgical robot called the Trauma Pod. The device allows surgeons to operate from afar, but it also can operate independently to provide accompanying procedures such as intubation. As Popular Mechanics reports, much of the surgeon’s remote role will be to tell the robot what it should not do. DARPA seems to think this robot might actually be ready for field use in a few years.
If/when the Trauma Pod does it make into service, it looks like it will have plenty of robotic company. The military has already been using robots for bomb disposal in Iraq, and as Wired reports, it will soon be using them to shoot people.
And just in case you’re a little anxious about the eventual robot revolution, be confident that they’re still a long way from beating us at Go.
-Greg Dahlmann