In a few more years, nanorobots injected into the body will become a reality. They could work in the patient's blood system, so their overall sizes would be just 1 or 2 mm. Even more exciting will be microrobotic grippers and tweezers. When placed in catheters, they'll give surgeons pinpoint access to the areas of the body they need to work on, something not yet possible for certain types of maladies or small patients like premature babies.
So many microelectronic devices are being used for monitoring, control, and treatment in implants and artificial prostheses for joints, hips, legs, and spines, some recipients are being likened to "bionic" creatures. Major advances in this area will certainly continue.
Because spinal problems beset a large number of people, a lot of activity is ongoing to develop implantable and therapeutic sensory systems. These will make back pain more tolerable and act as instrumentation systems, letting doctors study the long-term efficacy and effects of implantable devices.
Completely implantable hearing aids that will enable totally deaf individuals to hear are within a year or two from the market. They stimulate the ear's nerves and let them regenerate themselves back into action (Fig. 3).
What will this mean for mankind? It's nothing less than the complete and precise control of presently known diseases and maladies, as well as the prediction and treatment of not-yet-detected illnesses lurking in the human body.
It will certainly mean fewer adverse side effects from drugs because many of these chemicals will be designed to slowly seep into the body's tiny crevices, in a controlled manner, at precise locations. No drug is free of some side effect, but the tiny mechanisms and vehicles being designed now for them to ride in on will make these drugs much more "disease-specific." Some futurists are calling such drugs "magic bullets."
A New World: Many see the emergence of advanced biomedical devices as creating a new world of "bio-IT," in which the biological sciences of diseases, drugs, and tissue interactions converge with the world of information technology. The catalyst will be microelectronics technology like MEMS and nanoelectronics, with advances in telemetry and software piggybacking on these technologies.
There are already questions about whether biomedical technology developments are a blessing or a bane, as they bring potentially undesirable ramifications. The same advances in sensing, communications, and control technology can also be used by the government to keep tabs on individuals implanted with these devices, a clear invasion of privacy. Already, civil liberty advocates are protesting such potential misuses. Where do we draw the line? Only time will tell.