Don't worry everyone, we won't be seeing robotic surgeon's anytime soon, until the next time insurance companies look to enact cost cutting measures. Best guess, in the next few years. If you can still afford insurance then...
These are symbiotic. The research and development pays off because somebody else is willing to ruthlessly buy the new, cheaper/better option instead of the safe traditional choice. Mainframes gave way to minicomputers which gave way to microcomputers which gave way to laptops and now to mobiles.
There are many tasks that machines do today that humans will never outcompete again, and they do it at a superior intersection of benefits and costs. Using a heuristic like that is too lazy and brittle here.
