Robots in Health

               One of the most transformed robots of today are prosthetic limbs. Throughout history, humans have been given a prosthetic limbs to help them their live everyday lives normally and to allow others to see them as normal. They used to be made of wood or metal, and just had mechanisms that allowed them to move similarly to how a healthy limb would move. Today though, these robots are incredible. They are simply amazing. A person can just think, as they would for a healthy limb, and the prosthetic will perform the task.

                We now have the ability to connect our nerves and sensors to electrical, mechanical sensors. And this is seen not only in a prosthetic limb, but also with hearing. A deaf or nearly deaf human can use a cochlear implant to by-pass nerves in the inner ear to be able to understand sound and listen. Robots today can even help the blind be able to see. Special glasses have been created and are being improved to allow vision to those who may not have ever experienced it, using sensors and electrodes and of course the human brain.

                Personally, I think these improvements are amazing and being able to give humans these capabilities is what I want to do with my future. However, I do think that having these abilities can raise questions on what a human really is. It challenges the human as an organic being because knowing that a human uses electrical impulses we can transfer that to be able to use electricity of machines. It makes one wonder how much of the human can be replaced by robotic parts. Studies on humans living without a heart have even been performed and we know that it is possibly (maybe just for a short time) but nonetheless, it is possible for a human to live if he/she has machines to help perform their bodily functions. Robots are definitely the future but the more interesting thing to think about is when we should stop producing robots to improve our lives.