Garth George: Kids can look toward future of wonders

In the past few weeks newspapers have reported several advances in medical diagnostics, treatments and practices that, taken together, are little less than astonishing.

They have generally been buried on inside pages, but to this devotee of science fiction they have rung several bells.

Having tired of the sameness and general mundaneness of much of today's conventional fiction, a few years ago I picked up a few science fiction (and fantasy) novels from the library - and in no time I was hooked.

They provide me - up to three or four a week are summoned into my Kindle reader from cyberspace - with hours of mindless entertainment, an escape, if you will, from the realities of today.

I am aware that much of what early science-fiction writers wrote of has long come to pass, such as Philip Nowlan's Buck Rogers and his rocketship blasting through the air at 1400 miles an hour, and are these days passe.

So when I look at the amazing advances in almost all fields of endeavour just in my ever-decreasing lifetime, I wonder how much of today's science fiction will become scientific reality in another 70 years or so.

A couple of months ago I read that Gore had become the first place in New Zealand to employ robots to help humans with their health.

That was of more than passing interest because I was born in Gore, in my grandmother's maternity home, Dalkeith, which is these days Te Whanau a Hokonui Marae where a few years ago the marae folk showed me the very room in which I came into this world.

But back to the robots.

Four healthcare robots have been deployed by Gore Health to help to reduce costs, save staff time and improve patients' long-term health.

One large "healthbot" is based in a GP practice, performing tasks such as taking vital signs, while three are assisting with aged care in the Gore community, serving as faithful companions to elderly patients, especially those needing long-term chronic care.

The healthbots check blood pressure and heart rate, automatically transfer test data to clinicians and caregivers, and monitor for falls.

They also use voice recognition to talk back to patients, remind them to take medication, trundle around the room and provide some companionship.

In emergencies the robot can send text messages to a nominated phone indicating a problem.

Just a few days later I read of a robotic surgical device being successfully tested in prostate surgery at Tauranga Hospital which took measurements from a surgeon and did the rest on its own.

A robotic arm entered the diseased prostate, a jet of water as thin as a strand of hair and accelerated almost to the speed of sound tore off the affected tissue with precise, automated incisions, then produced a laser beam to cauterise the bleeding areas.

In all this I am reminded of today's science fiction, in which robots are used to do everything from cleaning to housekeeping (including making beds) to doing complete, highly complex medical operations to fabricating the components of, and building, 200-storey edifices or massive spaceships that can travel at many times the speed of light, reducing light years to hours, if not minutes.

Then there are machines that provide full meals of any choice at the push of a button; artificial intelligences that can compute the most labyrinthine mathematical calculations in a split second and even develop personalities; and "rejuvenation" techniques that give you 100 and more years of life in a 20 to 30-year-old body that never grows old.

Boy, could I do with that.

I wonder how long before even these things become a reality?

It won't happen in my lifetime, but I reckon kids born today are in for a fascinating future.

garth.george@hotmail.com