Information Science, Medicine, and Mr. Olson's Lecture

This weeks articles and Mr. Olson's lecture on the intersection of information science and medicine were very interesting. I think it's very cool how robots are being created to slowly but surely take the place of humans, such as Da vinci, a robot that allows surgeon's to more precisely and from anywhere in the world do surgery, Penelope, a robotic nurse, and, Dr. McSleepy, a robotic anesthesiologist who can interpret data on human blood-gas levels much quicker and more accurately than humans can. The question is, however, as we are able to assign these robots more and more tasks regarding surgery and health, should we? There is something very important in the difference between humans and robots -- we have the ability to think on our feet. For example, if something doesn't go as planned (or according to the algorithm in the case of a robot), a robot could just sit there and watch the person die becuase it doesn't have code on what to do in this new situation. However, a human has actual knowledge, rather than only directions, and so can imply what to do in those kinds of situations. There are also other issues regarding the dependability of "surgeon" robots. They could malfunction or physically break mid-surgery, for example. Also, I'm sure these robots use a huge amount of electricity to power themselves. If a natural disaster were to occur, many people would need hospital treatment, and there is a high likelihood that the power would go out so these robots wouldn't work. This means that during the times we need surgeons, nurses, ect. the most (when many people are injured at once), these robots would be unable to do their task. This would make natural disasters much worse, becuase all hospitals relying on these robots would be out of commission. Don't get me wrong, I do think the technology is useful. But becuase we are dealing with something as delicate as human life, I think this technology needs to be an additional tool of surgeons, not a replacement for them.