Automation will lead to dramatic improvements in medical care...none of these improvements would be possible without the use of programmable machines.
i.e. A skilled surgeon knows how to manipulate the instruments to achieve a desired treatment outcome...but imagine if s/he was able to orchestrate the treatment by controlling machinery that can operate at fantastic speed and at the cellular level...in that scenario the surgeon has been given the ability to slow down time, in a sense. damage that simply is beyond repair given todays technology would suddenly become possible.
In medicine the gifts of tireless speed, accuracy and the means of working at the cellular level would be like magic compared to the crude methods now available.
Like the DARPA projects that theorize the ability in the near future of creating a closed loop of cooling and oxygenation for the brain until the soldier can be delivered for treatment... this is going to become a reality.
Or the prospect of Type 1 physical immortality (more accurately to be describes as life-extension) this first stage will keep the brain functioning by bio-mechanical means... it is really possible, although a bit frightening also.. it waits for advances mainly in I/O as what use is being alive without being able to sense and manipulate in the physical world...I am speaking here mainly of advanced remote telepresence and the creation of surrogates.
These breakthroughs will not be evil or Godless, it is flawed men who can be evil and Godless... we need to ensure such breakthroughs are used for the betterment of all..
The future will bring things like artificial immune systems, printed replacement organs, artificial eyes and later actual new eyes created using the patients own tissue...
Right now you can create simple replacement parts as is being done with bladders...
Spinal repair will become possible... repair of physical damage to the brain will become possible...
All this has its origins in the concept of the universal computing machine as Turing first described it.
Automation of this type will be the greatest tool ever wielded by man...it will be an incredible extension of the mind’s ability to manipulate the physical world.
I’m not saying that it’s all useless and without benefit.
I just don’t believe that it’s always being used for good; and I see it working very destructively in some areas.
It’s like any tool or power - it’s up to individuals to make choices as to where and how it’s correct to employ it.
We haven’t done a very good job at that, so far.