“By 2030 all surgical anesthesia will be administered and monitored by computers, with no need for professional medical supervision beyond the surgeon.”

Anesthesia and the role of the anesthesiologist generally follow a simple algorithm. Even when complications arise these are dealt with in a predetermined manner. Computers, provided with the appropriate software, can follow an algorithm more efficiently than any human. As patients become more comfortable with computers and robotics involved in their medical care this concept with easily phase in. This argument can be made for almost all medical specialties, however, anesthesia will likely require the most basic software set. This argument is not to say that anesthesiologists or the field of anesthesia will become obsolete, only that their role in the operating room will become negligible and there field in general will be completely different from where it stands today.