22 replies to this topic

[Italian Ufo]

Today one problem associated with invasive surgeries is the remain scars.

I read in the past  articles about  research on lasers who are able to seal and regenerate tissue right after the surgery.

I consider nanotechnology to make its break in medicine around late 50s-60. Do you think this laser will be available sooner?

I think we may have a laser that helps to seal wounds immidiatly but this wouldnt avoid scars and wouldnt really regnerate tissues.

whats your opinion on this?

 

Credit:http://media.popular...re-470-0609.jpg

[Raklian]

There was an article published just a few days ago that talked about scientists discovering a protein responsible for the formation of scars and they were going to figure out ways to manipulate this protein to give us healed skin that is pretty much scar-less.

[wjfox]

I consider nanotechnology to make its break in medicine around late 50s-60.

 

That's absurd. Nano-medicine is already an emerging field today, never mind in half a century.

[MarcZ]

They already use lasers to a degree for minor surgery, and reducing scars.

[Italian Ufo]

I consider nanotechnology to make its break in medicine around late 50s-60.

 

That's absurd. Nano-medicine is already an emerging field today, never mind in half a century.

Why  nanotechnology is not subjcet in many medical degrees around the world? why dont they form  nano-medics already ? I only heard about very few medical trials of nanon-medicine on  humans and thats in regards of curing cancer. Are you telling me that in 20 years we will  have a brain surgery, knees suergery or heart surgery with nanonbots? Sorry I really doubt it. in the next 10 years I can ony see surgerys conducted by machines like leonardo that are  driven b  docotors in the operating room. After a few years they may become very precise like operatng on a single cells but using nanobots in a surgery we are still far away from that.

[SG-1]

I agree if you are talking about surgery, but nanocapsules and other nano areas of medicine, like getting past the Blood brain barrier or delivering medicine cells.  We are already doing that.

 

Also, the timeline says by 2040 we will have full immersion virtual reality, with the use of nanobots that replace the signals in the brain.  This to me seems crazy.  Think about how we are going to get those nanobots to sit on top a a singular neuron without damaging the brain, if we can even get them to target the correct neurons that is.  Each brain is completely different, and new synapses are formed between the neurons, we will have to be extra careful that we do not impede the ability change our pathways, that is of course how we form memories.

 

I am a skeptic of full immersion virtual reality using that method, maybe there is another way I don't know.  Or maybe I am thinking to pessimistically and linearly.  I hope so. 

 

EDIT:
I thought there was another video, but I can't find it.  This is just an example, added 4 years ago too.

Edited by SG-1, 22 February 2013 - 09:25 PM.

[Italian Ufo]

Yes I was talking about nano-bots surgery. If it was going to be applied in 10-20 years now, nano-medicine would be a mandatory subject in medical universities or they would have  a specialization.

What I may see happening in 2020-30 with nanotechnology in medicine is  nanobots in clothes, maybe to clean the blood ( if we are optinistic) or it may  be in some cloths or used to deliver medicine that may happen.

About  the timeline saying that by 2040 we will have full immersion virtual reality using nanobots that replace the signals in the brain  I also find this crazy.

Edited by Italian Ufo, 22 February 2013 - 11:49 PM.

[StanleyAlexander]

Yes I was talking about nano-bots surgery. If it was going to be applied in 10-20 years now, nano-medicine would be a mandatory subject in medical universities or they would have or a specialization.

There are lots of schools that have nanotech (and medical nanotech) programs, here are a few:

 

http://www.nano.med.umich.edu

http://www.ucl.ac.uk...es/tmsnanargm01

http://www.stonybrook.edu/nanotech/

 

Even so, it's still a new field, and the current view of technological progress hasn't yet grasped the full implications of exponential growth (rather than linear)--this is, I think, the same reason that nano-surgery in the 2030's sounds infeasible to you.

 

I don't know what you mean by universities having "mandatory" subjects, but I'm sure that we'll see the subject gain ground rapidly among the collective higher ed curriculum as the science and industry infrastructure matures.  20 years is a long time.

[Italian Ufo]

Yes I was talking about nano-bots surgery. If it was going to be applied in 10-20 years now, nano-medicine would be a mandatory subject in medical universities or they would have or a specialization.

There are lots of schools that have nanotech (and medical nanotech) programs, here are a few:

 

http://www.nano.med.umich.edu

http://www.ucl.ac.uk...es/tmsnanargm01

http://www.stonybrook.edu/nanotech/

 

Even so, it's still a new field, and the current view of technological progress hasn't yet grasped the full implications of exponential growth (rather than linear)--this is, I think, the same reason that nano-surgery in the 2030's sounds infeasible to you.

 

I don't know what you mean by universities having "mandatory" subjects, but I'm sure that we'll see the subject gain ground rapidly among the collective higher ed curriculum as the science and industry infrastructure matures.  20 years is a long time.

 

I am aware of reserach programes in nano medicine,  I didnt know about masters degrees in nanotechnology so thats good to know.

For mandatory subject I mean that if nanotech would be so diffuse in 20 years, they wil lmake it study in medicine faculties already now. At least here in Italy there is no such a thing, not even an intro classes in a medical degree. One can graduarte in medicine and become a doctor with out knowing anything of nano-medicine but i think is the same in many other countries. What I mean Nano medicine is only isolated to master programs and other  research degree programes but is not a main streem subject and it won't be come until they have accurate datas on labs. So that why I see nano-medicine or nano-bots coming more a reality in 50s and 60s. Thats when we will start to see surgeries with nano-bots and it may be initial trails then.

So my scale is until 2030s  study from 2030s on first nano-medics and extremely limited field of nano-applications in medicine 2060s First surgeries with nanobots.

Edited by Italian Ufo, 22 February 2013 - 11:46 PM.

[SG-1]

Good, just in time for my senior years. 

 

Hopefully before I die we get full immersion virtual reality.  That would be the ultimate experience.  You could do whatever you wanted, time travel see the future, the past whatever.

 

Still, with the way virtual reality reality is, with the occulus rift. And the new PS4 graphics, I think by the 2040s we will have a very immersive experience.  Especially with BCI, that work wirelessly.  Unfortunately the brain can't receive input from wireless signals...yet.

 

 

Back on topic: I think we will see lasers that seal wounds and leave no scar before the 2050s or 2060s.  I would like to see the human body regain regenerative abilities through a combination of stem cells and gene therapy.  I can see respirocytes and a smart blood clotting nanomedicine well before the 2050s.  This would allow for regenerative abilities, as you can't regenerate over scar tissue.  So nanobots that clot the area efficiently will be a important. 

 

Just respirocytes will be amazing, the ability to go anaerobic for hours is awesome, people would have 4-6 hours after a heart attack to get to a doctor.  Plus with circuitry being embedded in clothing, the military is starting this now, there will be a ton of benefits from nanotechnology even though they may not be actual autonomous nanobots.  And who knows, with computers being made out of DNA and getting to be so small, I wouldn't to shocked if by the 2030s we had a form of nanobot that could go into cells and clean them out and perform some surgeries.  I just hope that organizations like the FDA don't slow this down so much that it takes more than my lifetime to see the benefits.  Otherwise it may go underground and would be expensive, dangerous and maybe even unethical. 

 

I think that by the 2030s there will be a race to achieve longevity medicines.  I think a lot of companies then will be competing and finally get the correct funds to develop and research longevity medicines.  We already have mice living much longer than they should normally and I think by the 2030s the headlines you see today about mice will be a reality for humans on the market.

Edited by SG-1, 23 February 2013 - 12:15 AM.

[Casey]

The differing perspectives here are interesting. In one corner, we have the hopeful enthusiasm of Stanley and fox; in the other we have Italian, who predicts medicine and technology to progress at roughly the same speed as a quadrapalegic turtle traversing a desert composed entirely of quicksand. And then there's SG-1 somewhere in between, who's cautiously optimistic. Lots of differing perspectives here.

 

I'm not sure when full immersion virtual reality will come about, but I would say that being a teenager at the dawn of the virtual reality era is a good place to be, SG. The Oculus Rift has been described by everyone who's used it as an absolutely amazing experience, so it's safe to say that virtual reality 10 or 20 years down the road will likewise be amazing, whatever form it takes.

[StanleyAlexander]

HMMMM, YESSSS, LET'S SEE HOW THE STORY UNFOLDS.......

 

I just think that healthcare can count on being a primary focus of our development, at least for the next several decades--literally, until we don't have to worry about health anymore.

 

Given that, given the fact that "nanotechnology" already exists today, and given the observed IT trends of 1. Exponential increase in price-performance, and 2. Exponential decrease of feature size, I conclude that in 20 years nanobots will be running shit in the ER.

[Italian Ufo]

Thats very optimistic to think but I really doubt so. I mean the same thing were saying about stem cells in early  2000s.

 

By now we should be able to cure cartilage, heart, cancer, theeth,  skin and so on. We are only at early stage of stem cells. Yes they talk about it morea and more but think about the hospital (CTO of Rome) where I went yesterday I knew more about stem cells then the doctor who was visiting me.

 

Medicine is slow guys. There will be a time of the history where every week we make one huge discover but it will be later this century or the one after. I will cheer day by day when this epoch will come. 

The biggest problems of nano-tech in medicine is how can we get all nanobots out of the body?  what if they dont work in the way they do and they could actully make things worst? how body would respond to these injections? and then of course all the technological complications to perform a nanobot surgery.

[Italian Ufo]

An intresting article about the possibilities of nanotechnolgy in medicine in the future.

 

http://hplusmagazine...ns-perspective/

[StanleyAlexander]

From that article:

 

 

What is the lesson for new surgeons? Expect to be surpassed by surgical advances in your lifetime. Nevertheless, be vigilant about upcoming trends, and prepare yourself to adapt to them. DO NOT underestimate any new technique; instead learn about it and study the trend. A new meme (meme = idea-concept in evolutionary contest with other ideas) that is successful will evolve into a completely new field….

I'm still hopeful.  As far as technical issues like removal of the nanobots, failsafe scenarios and safety redundancies, these are all the things that need to be covered in R&D before you're even licensed to commence trials on humans, forget about making your nanoshit commercially available.  Yes, medicine is slow.  But medicine, like all our other technology, is getting faster.  And it's getting faster, faster.  20 years ago was 1993.  1993!  They still thought the human genome project was going to take a thousand years.  This was the internet.

 

And 20 years from now is going to represent more than the past 20 years has, due to the nature of acceleration.

Edited by StanleyAlexander, 23 February 2013 - 06:35 AM.

[Italian Ufo]

It may be. Yes things are getting faster then before still they are really slow. Before 1960 medicine was moving like a Slug after the 80s as a Koala and now we are movin like a turtle. We are getting faster but still we are slow. But anyway I respect your opinion..

[Casey]

Medicine is slow guys. There will be a time of the history where every week we make one huge discover but it will be later this century or the one after. I will cheer day by day when this epoch will come. 

 

I guess it depends on what you consider 'major,' but I'm a regular visitor to KurzweilAI and there's a very steady stream of new discoveries and breakthroughs. One could argue that the implementation of said knowledge in any meaningful fashion is slow, but the research itself seems to progress at quite a nice pace.

[Italian Ufo]

good for you guys who believe so

[Casey]

I'm not saying you're wrong, you're more knowledgeable about the field than I am. Just saying that based on my limited understanding of things, the situation doesn't look too bleak... seems more like a walking human than a walking turtle, maybe. But yeah.

[Italian Ufo]

I'm not saying you're wrong, you're more knowledgeable about the field than I am. Just saying that based on my limited understanding of things, the situation doesn't look too bleak... seems more like a walking human than a walking turtle, maybe. But yeah.

 

No sorry it is my bad. I am having a bad day due to some very rude people.  I am also a bit touchy about medical issues as I have been dissapointed for many years. So  Please apologize me.