This article from portfolio.com does a good job of illustrating the bandwidth law on the advancement of surgery. They have robots who currently perform surgery while being operated by a surgeon (ie the robot is not thinking, the doctor is).
What they want to do is have the best doctor anywhere in the world perform a surgery from afar but any packet loss or a delay of any sort can be critical to the survival of the patient.
Regardless of feelings about having someone thousands of miles away performing surgery on you, this is an interesting way to think of the bandwidth law, and will this every be good enough to trust your life with, since any risk of a interference or signal degradation would be a to big a risk for many people to trust.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/dual-perspectives/2009/03/03/Outsourcing-The-Surgeon
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Thanks.. While this may look a bit far-fetched now, we can see this as a real possibility just as industries such as mining and petroleum carry out many complex tasks remotely. The real question is consumer acceptance and how to overcome the resistance.
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