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"Generally, the human race avoids doing anything radical until forced into it."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Autosurgeon | ||
| A mechanical aid to physicians, performing surgical procedures with surgeons present. |
In the distant future of the novel, people who thought ahead could have themselves "resleeved", that is, placed in another body that was grown for the purpose.
| ....I caught a glimpse of figures gathered around the surgery platform, the autosurgeon moving spiderlike above them...
...The little knot of figures, immaculately suited to a man and woman, had left the table on which a young female sleeve was laid out, and were gaping at me behind forgotten surgical masks. Only the autosurgeon continued working unperturbed, making smooth incisions and cauterizing wounds with abrupt little sizzlings. Indistinct lumps of raw red poked out of an array o fsmall metal dishes collected at the subject's head. It looked unnervingly like the start of some arcane banquet. |
| From Altered Carbon,
by Richard Morgan. Published by Del Rey in 2003 Additional resources -
|
There really are autosurgeons now, just a few years after the publication of the novel.
Take a look at this article on da Vinci Surgical Robot: Dr.'s Helper.
Compare to the emergency treatment tank from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz, the
Gobathian from Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) by Clifford Simak, the surgical homeostatic unit from Now Wait For Last Year (1966) by Philip K. Dick, the autodoc from The Warriors (1966) by Larry Niven, the diagnostat from The Man in the Maze (1969) by Robert Silverberg, electronic body analyzer from The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton and the crechepod from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert.
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'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
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