Robots by Vecna

[Jack7]

The U.S. military branches have begun a consortium with private institutions to develop treatments for severely injured troops. With the help of grants, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine is studying nerve and vein transplantation, treating burns without scarring and regeneration of tissue, skin and even bone.

Through both animal studies and civilian clinical trials, the institute is developing therapies for the large number of soldiers injured by improvised explosive devices and other explosives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We are working on trying to regenerate limbs, to repair limbs and to keep them from being amputated," institute Project Director Col. Bob Vandre said.

Depending on if it had merely topical applications, or could be ingested internally so as to be tissue-specifically targeted, then such a substance could also assist with things like tissue regeneration (possibly) in nerve clusters, thereby making things like non-donor stem cell research obsolete (assuming you could harvest enough healthy tissue to be replaced in order to create a molecular base for the tissue foundation you wished to establish and regenerate.)

Army scientists also have developed an engineered skin substitute made in a laboratory from patients' own cells. A postage stamp-sized patch of skin could grow several times larger than the original sample. The engineered skin could then be placed over a wound or burn, protecting it from infection, and eventually cover large portions of the body that have been damaged.

I also really, really like this idea. Think of the civilian applications as well, child injured or burned in IED attack, covered in engineered skin, then recovers completely. And because of the source, no chance of rejection. Perhaps such a development could even be expanded in scope to include anti-cancer treatments (replacing or resetting cancerous tissue with healthy matter) and because of bio-engineered source matter, used to replace internal organ sections damaged by toxin or chemical poisoning.

As for game purposes I can also see how such a development could be used to chemically treat light wounds, spurring on quick regeneration as a back-up for healing potions, surges, and what-not. And as a treatment for poisoning, internal injuries, and systemic organ failure. As a matter of fact, in-game, some clever Wizard might develop a substance that has multiple healing functions, encompassing things from curing cuts and stab wounds, to recovery from severe concussions , to regenerating tissue internally to recover from poisoning.

Brainstorm Responds to Robot Ethics Challenge | MND: Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory

This article (which I noticed a coupla weeks back) also made me think about the possibility of engineers and Wizards designing robot war/combat artifacts and devices, that could operate either by external control, or autonomously, that could do things like scout positions, or even infiltrate a lair and fight a dangerous monster (either killing it or softening it up for the party), or that could defend a town, or village. You could even create small, mulit-function disposable artifacts which are in-game character tools.

And of course such things would have direct application to modern and sci-fi games.

 

[krissbeth]

I see their ads on the T all the time and it kind of creeps me out.

 

[Derren]

That reminds me of
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