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rapidlua | 3 years ago

But c’mon there’s no such thing as safe brain surgery. Would you then market brain surgeries as unsafe?

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samus|3 years ago

Bad comparison. Brain surgeries are a method of last resort. They are unsafe because there are significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of the brain that might take centuries more to fill. Every time a neurosurgeon cuts, they are potentially doing irreversible damage to an important part of a person's consciousness, abilities and memories.

Edit: and there is no way to prevent that damage except by detailed planning and by stopping to cut when the patient (under local anestesia) ceases talking or performing their craft. Other damage can only be detected later though.

avgcorrection|3 years ago

Is surgery often a last resort, done when less invasive things have been ruled out or cannot be used? Yes. Is the human body the most complex “machinery” that we know, demanding our utmost respect? Is the brain the most delicate part of the body? Probably, yes.(?) Is brain surgery in turn a very delicate procedure that should be approached with a thousand-fold more caution than mere tinkering on human artifacts, such as programming? Yes.

It’s like you have gone out of your way to prove the opposite point of what you were ostensibly trying to prove.

yakubin|3 years ago

Yes? I wouldn’t even think that’s in any way controversial.

rurban|3 years ago

Actually working on safe brain surgery robots. It's marketed as safe, and the code is checked to be hard-realtime and safe.