Robo-doctor

Ahh, I haven't blogged in a while but this article on IFLS got me going again. It is about new robotic techniques that allow a machine to conduct brain surgery on patients with severe epilepsy. It sounds incredibly interesting and, besides relating to epilepsy, fueled my intense obsession with human-computer interaction.

I am lucky and unlucky in my particular type of epilepsy. The seizures I have are generalized, meaning they take over my entire brain, versus localized, which affect certain regions of the brain. Localized seizures can be attributed to tumors, so surgically removing that tumor usually does the trick. With my generalized seizures, I am not a candidate for surgery, so I have no idea how I would feel if faced with the option to have a surgical procedure. Then, add to that the decision of whether you want a human surgeon or a robot to perform the procedure, which I beleive will become a legitimate option soon enough. I can't fathom having to make that decision.

Of course there are pros and cons to this technique: a robot could possibly not have the wherewithal to make an important decision is something goes wrong, but a doctor could slip or sneeze or something. But, what interests me the most is blame. What if something does go wrong when a robot operates? Whose fault is that? All too often we hear of mistakes made my "computer error." For example, that ridiculous firework display a couple years ago at mission bay. We have a tendency to blame computers, it's easy and no one gets in trouble. And this may very well be the right thing to do. As a recovering computer science major, I know that no matter what you do, sometimes computers do crazy things. But what about in a case as serious as brain surgery?

In America, I think the question really comes down to, who will be sued? Because that's what we do. So, do we blame the doctor (I assume someone is monitoring the process)? the manufacturer of the hardware? the programmers? the hospital? the patient? Or will we blame the "robot" as if it is an entity capable of conscious error? As in "the robot screwed up" or "the robot miscalculated".

I have a feeling the robot will burden part of the blame. But what about when robots evolve even more? When they do have the ability to make an informed decision, factoring in some type of "emotional" element? When they have the ability to defend themselves in court? This brings me to one of my favorite topics: robot rights. If we, by blaming "computer error", admit that a robot is capable of its own error, we admit that it functions independently of humans, that it is, in a sense, alive. Plenty of Hollywood movies have proposed the theory of a robotic uprising. In almost all cases, the intelligent robots are emotionless, violent, metallic "others"trying to colonize humans. Sound familiar? It seems we harbor an intense fear that robots will do to humans what humans have been doing to each other forever. I feel like I'm going to enter a wormhole here so I'll stop for now.

But back to the original topic. Would you let a robot perform brain surgery on you? Or is this just the first step to Hollywood human domination? Dun dun! (<--dramatic sound that I don't know how to communicate in a blog)