Is med bay plausible technology in the far future?
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Torrible_2013 — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 02:12 AM)
In the near future, entire organs may be 3D bio-printed using cells (of the relevant organ type) differentiated from the donor's own stem cells.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/how-3-d-printing-body-pa rts-will-revolutionize-medicine
The machine's technology is plausible only if cells of various organ types (heart, liver, skin etc) specific to the user/owner are already stored within the machine. The machine can use the harvested cells and print them over the scars/defects.
However, the machine seems to be able to heal just about anyone who lies in it as long as they are recognized as a citizen. This requires on-the-fly harvesting and differentiating of stem cells from the user even before any reconstruction takes place. It seems highly implausible.
The complete reconstruction of Kruger's face may be possible if a 3D scan of his face had already been made and uploaded somewhere in the system. -
leonthecleaner-1 — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 04:11 PM)
Yeah I was also thinking some sort of 3d printing. Though not sure how it would connect them to existing cells? Also inside the body, etc.
Also for creating this sort of info, isn't DNA the only thing the machine needs to restore/reconstruct organs, etc? -
HkizzIe — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 04:47 PM)
Yeah but if you look at the article, note how such technology is limited to:
body parts: heart valves, ears, artificial bone, joints, menisci, vascular tubes, and skin grafts.
The key word there is body parts which then have to be transplanted. Certain body parts are very generic and easy to replicate, which is why in medicine you can easily transplant things like skin, joints, parts of hearts, or entire hearts, etc.
But to totally create a face actually on the face itself without a transplantation process, and in that speed, no way. That means creating it at an molecular level which is a totally different technology and would generate too much heat.
If you organically create tissue, that's different from what you see in this movie. -
uponapyre — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 07:15 AM)
"too much heat" is only tied to our current level of technology. We will overcome this issue in the future.
You simply cannot apply the restrictions we have today to the possibility of advancment, history will teach you this is nonsense.
You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Darling! -
ktyson9426 — 12 years ago(December 09, 2013 09:00 AM)
Robotic machinery is being developed to permit surgeons to operate remotely, and somewhere in the distant future there might be some sort of autonomous medical technology that could operate on humans. I think the level of technology Elysium portrayed was far fetched though Even 144 years into the future.
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uponapyre — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 07:14 AM)
You can't see it because you're looking from your position here, in 2013.
Tech WILL advance to this point. It's absolutley inevitable if we continue to progress at an exponential rate, or even progress at all.
You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Darling! -
gfarrell80 — 12 years ago(December 27, 2013 07:25 PM)
Tech WILL advance to this point. It's absolutley inevitable if we continue to progress at an exponential rate, or even progress at all.
Anything that was possible in science fiction 100 years ago is now a reality. I think most things that we see in science fiction today will eventually be reality.
I love optimism but I think you guys have to realize that there are limitations to what can be done with matter.
There are lots of things written about in science fiction that are still complete absurdities.
We have not been progressing at an exponential rate (however you choose to define that), and the idea of inevitable progress and growth is some kind of illusion. In 200 years we could be stone age tribes again killing each other with sharpened sticks and rocks if we're not careful. -
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uponapyre — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 07:10 AM)
Anyone saying it won't be possible has no idea bout exponential growth of computer technology.
Technology looks like magic to primitive cultures, it's very short sighted to say this will never happen based on our current ability and understanding.
so yes, it could very well be possible.
You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Darling! -
wizard999 — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 01:20 PM)
In a word: No.
After a century of medical science we still barely know how most illnesses work. Even for those that are understood, many can only be "managed", not cured. If I go to my doctor with an infectious disease - any disease - nine times out of ten the doctor will just prescribe antibiotics. Which in our lifetime will stop working for the most part because of resistances. So, just extrapolate what we have managed to discover so far, as a plus factor calculate in the acceleration of scientific discovery through modern technology, as a minus factor the other problems (climate change, overpopulation, food and water scarcity) that demand attention and resources. Projected into the future of 'Elysium' and such a device is pure dreaming. And an incredibly lazy plot device to boot. -
leonthecleaner-1 — 12 years ago(December 17, 2013 12:41 AM)
Actually that's something that bothers me too. We can't even cure the common cold or completely eradicate a virus. Shouldn't we be able to do that? Like being able to completely get rid of all viruses without a trace. If I am not wrong, there is no point in having them unlike some bacteria.
Also the current surgeries are too invasive. We should be able to fix most problems without opening up the body IMO.
Completely slow down ageing and reverse it, etc.
Just having these would get rid of the vast majority of diseases. -
subase — 12 years ago(December 17, 2013 01:06 AM)
Also there's the political and economic problems. Pretty much all advanced medical research occurs only in the richest most educated and liberal nations. If that changes we will see a massive drop in medical advances.
Then there's the business side, which wants to control and profit from patents, and thus limits research and inventions. -
Ronin008 — 12 years ago(December 25, 2013 03:50 PM)
That's a rather bleak projection of our human ingenuity. It will take time. We have made a lot of advancements in the last 100 years; the hurdle in understanding human ailments is I think in the Genome project. If we have infinite computing resources, we can sequence all the diseases catalogued and their cures. I think the answer lies in artificial intelligence as one other person said. We cannot hope to know everything but there are things AI can do that we cannot. Mind you, that's a very optimistic overview. There are things that may prevent us from reaching that level of consciousness though. That all said, having a 70's supercomputer in the form of a handheld is rudimentary compared to what the utopian scenario Elysium depicted.
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kaiser100 — 12 years ago(January 26, 2014 09:20 PM)
Perhaps people are being pessimistic based on the specific kind of technology depicted in Elysium and its instant cure-all capacity. However, if advances in computing such as we have seen in the last 40 years are in any way reflected in medicine in the future, certainly many medical breakthroughs are inevitable. Even regarding medicine so far, it is way more effective than it was a hundred years ago when just a few drugs with proven efficacy were around. Insulin wasn't discovered until 1922 and antibiotics in 1935. Now we have thousands of drugs. They haven't really extended human lifespan per se but have certainly greatly increased the numbers of people who live to be very old and the quality of life of many people even if they don't live that long. Total lifespan itself is a tricky issue but I would not be surprised if the majority of people under 40 now live to be 100.
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Fennris — 12 years ago(December 20, 2013 12:02 PM)
It was a plot device and a metaphor. While I have no doubt that many things will be possible in the future and most medical issues curable (and many deaths even reversible), I don't see how that device could possibly/theoretically work the way it was portrayed.
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fbplayer1064 — 12 years ago(December 20, 2013 06:48 PM)
They probably wouldn't even bother with this type of tech. I think more likely is people would upload their genetic material every night while they sleep to create a copy we could then build a new body and download their thoughts/memories into the new body and be good as new