A student told me about an experience at TEDMED, the future-oriented medical conference that bills itself as “a celebration of human achievement and the power of connecting the unconnected in creative ways to change our world in health and medicine.” He recounted how one speaker showed off the Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant, which news outlets quickly dubbed the “Robo-Doc.” This high-priced gadget is designed to provide remote medical services to patients who wouldn’t otherwise be able to see real-life doctors, but my student told me that the presentation didn’t talk about that much. Instead, he felt, the speaker’s message seemed to be: “Robots are cool, so let’s make more of them.”
