June 20, 2025 • 6 mins
Larry and Kevin discuss how Medical professionals in Florida just removed cancer from a patient in Africa using robot technology. Could this technology change how we treat cancer?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, I shouldn't call you a kid anymore. It's just
that I knew you when you I knew you back
when you were a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Kevin Surreally is the futurist reporter and founder of the
Meet the Future website. Kevin, I'm so impressed with all
your success. I was I the first to have you
on really.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, because I grew up watching you and then like
it's it's kind of surreal to be in New York
City with you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Do you root for the Phillies though, I can't even say.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I see, I knew. I knew that was a rude question.
I'm a guess.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Don't worry. Don't worry about it. I I root for
the New York Team's second's fair. You have to be
you have to love the home team. You gotta let respect.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think that gets you respect.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I hope, so maybe not. I'm going to get death
threats now and I'll be crying.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Don't cry.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Kevin was at Penn State and I had him on
the air in Philadelphia when he was covering all of
the problems with Terry Jones Papa Joe, Yeah, Jerry saying
you don't want to say Joe Paterno.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You know I it's yeah, now you're gonna get me
in trouble, see you see me? Just that was very
well played, well played. You know it's tough. My dad
went to Penn State. Penn State is is such an
I went to Penn State. I loved going there. Center County,
Pennsylvania is such a beautiful town, beautiful community. That that
that story tour, that tour the community's part and you
(01:23):
know it's it's it's a really sad.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I know you saw it when it was playing out
with Joe Paterno. I think he was unfairly treated. I'm
sure you do too, but you know, it is what
it is. At this point, let's talk about the future.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Let's talk about the future.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
This is so cool that you've you've got this, uh
got this title. Now, I've never heard of a futurist
reporter before.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
My team tells me no, But you know, I just
I just like writing about aliens and asteroids and quantum
computing and everything that's coming next in robots. And you know,
I'm a huge science fiction nerd and I love action movies.
And I just started this newsletter. It took off on
substack and next thing. I know. I'm sitting talking to
Larry MENTI and iHeart and it's been amazing. It's been
(02:07):
so much fun.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well you deserve it. And because all the things you're
talking about that where the future are now happening. Yeah,
everything we used to watch in science fiction movies here
now happening. How about this story that a Florida doctor
removed cancer from a patient in Africa seven thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
How did that this? This is one of those stories
that ten years ago would have been on the cover
of Time magazine or would have been a huge story
on the nightly news, and we just blink in it
and we move on. So here's a doctor down in Florida,
the FDA just to prove this a tell surgery where
he was like playing a video game for lack of
(02:46):
a better of analogy, using the joystick from Florida. And meanwhile,
there's a guy in Angola who has a tumor, a
prostate tumor, and this robot that he's commanding in Florida,
there's a robot in Angola and he's performing the surgery
removing the tumor. And they had humans in the room
in Angola in case something went wrong, but the miracle
(03:09):
he said, nothing went wrong, Larry, it worked. And so
when you think of what this was the first time
this was ever done. But when you think of what
this could actually mean, how much hope this gives, especially
whether it's military and the battlefield with humans getting injured,
you could have doctors back in a command center and
robots there that are assisting them in surgeries in real time,
or even firefighters and public safety across the country. The
(03:33):
fact that a human can be commanding a robot somewhere
and saving a life is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, it's amazing also that you pointed out that there
are doctors there in the room, but they trusted the
robot more.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, it's a great that's a great point. But I
think it was a combination. I would argue that was
definitely a calculation. Lord forbid, something goes wrong. There's humans
there that can take over if the robot malfunctions, But
there is also a trust in the American doctor in Florida,
the American who was commanding that robot, and the doctor
(04:10):
the human in Florida who was operating through that robot. It, Yeah,
I get it. So it's both. I think my point is,
you know, there's this huge conversation and we talk about
you know, Americans are the most pessimistic about artificial intelligence.
You go to the polls suggest this, you go to
other parts of the world, they think artificial intelligence is
the next best thing. They're going to have more vacation time,
They're going to get to relax more. I mean, our
(04:32):
country invented artificial intelligence, and we're scaring ourselves out of it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, I think there is some scary parts to it.
We could talk about that, we said, but I do
think there's some scary parts to it. This isn't scary cool,
this is amazing. Let me ask you this then, however,
so you have the robot actually doing the surgery. I
know it's being commanded by a doctor. If the doctor
was in the room, would he allow the robot to
(04:56):
do it because it would be more precise.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
That's a great question. You know, I don't have the
answer to that, but definitely I'll write a follow up
on that because that's a brilliant question. Because when I
went down to Florida a couple it was like two
years ago now, for like a tech summit type of thing,
and they showed me these augmented reality glasses and it
was something straight out of a sci fi movie. It
(05:20):
was really really cool, and I thought, who's ever gonna
want to use AR? They call it augmented reality glasses.
So you put these glasses on and your computer screen
is meshed in. It's way better than the vision pro
stuff that's out there. But they said, your doctor has
to hold a clipboard when when the doctors and the oar.
But if they have the glasses on, they can get
all your vitals, all of your information, all of your
(05:41):
precision on where to make the connection through these this technology.
So the technology is merging with the human But I
think the biggest takeaway that I had is that we're
all going to have to learn to manage the technology.
So doctors, yes, they're gonna have to start in every profession,
but take doctors for example. They're gonna have to start
learning how to use and manage robots in the same
(06:03):
way that they've had to do other stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And we would also have to trust that technology as well.
You have so many other things to talk about, but
I was fascinated by this. I think this is the story.
So we'll have you back next week, right, And appreciate
it so every Friday, Kevin sareally thanks so much. A
futurist reporter. Can you fall in love? How about this?
Can you fall in love with an AI chat bot?
(06:25):
You can? You can? It's happened, several people have and
we'll talk about that next
Now, I shouldn't call you a kid anymore. It's just
that I knew you when you I knew you back
when you were a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Kevin Surreally is the futurist reporter and founder of the
Meet the Future website. Kevin, I'm so impressed with all
your success. I was I the first to have you
on really.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, because I grew up watching you and then like
it's it's kind of surreal to be in New York
City with you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Do you root for the Phillies though, I can't even say.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I see, I knew. I knew that was a rude question.
I'm a guess.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Don't worry. Don't worry about it. I I root for
the New York Team's second's fair. You have to be
you have to love the home team. You gotta let respect.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think that gets you respect.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I hope, so maybe not. I'm going to get death
threats now and I'll be crying.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Don't cry.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Kevin was at Penn State and I had him on
the air in Philadelphia when he was covering all of
the problems with Terry Jones Papa Joe, Yeah, Jerry saying
you don't want to say Joe Paterno.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You know I it's yeah, now you're gonna get me
in trouble, see you see me? Just that was very
well played, well played. You know it's tough. My dad
went to Penn State. Penn State is is such an
I went to Penn State. I loved going there. Center County,
Pennsylvania is such a beautiful town, beautiful community. That that
that story tour, that tour the community's part and you
(01:23):
know it's it's it's a really sad.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I know you saw it when it was playing out
with Joe Paterno. I think he was unfairly treated. I'm
sure you do too, but you know, it is what
it is. At this point, let's talk about the future.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Let's talk about the future.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
This is so cool that you've you've got this, uh
got this title. Now, I've never heard of a futurist
reporter before.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
My team tells me no, But you know, I just
I just like writing about aliens and asteroids and quantum
computing and everything that's coming next in robots. And you know,
I'm a huge science fiction nerd and I love action movies.
And I just started this newsletter. It took off on
substack and next thing. I know. I'm sitting talking to
Larry MENTI and iHeart and it's been amazing. It's been
(02:07):
so much fun.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well you deserve it. And because all the things you're
talking about that where the future are now happening. Yeah,
everything we used to watch in science fiction movies here
now happening. How about this story that a Florida doctor
removed cancer from a patient in Africa seven thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
How did that this? This is one of those stories
that ten years ago would have been on the cover
of Time magazine or would have been a huge story
on the nightly news, and we just blink in it
and we move on. So here's a doctor down in Florida,
the FDA just to prove this a tell surgery where
he was like playing a video game for lack of
(02:46):
a better of analogy, using the joystick from Florida. And meanwhile,
there's a guy in Angola who has a tumor, a
prostate tumor, and this robot that he's commanding in Florida,
there's a robot in Angola and he's performing the surgery
removing the tumor. And they had humans in the room
in Angola in case something went wrong, but the miracle
(03:09):
he said, nothing went wrong, Larry, it worked. And so
when you think of what this was the first time
this was ever done. But when you think of what
this could actually mean, how much hope this gives, especially
whether it's military and the battlefield with humans getting injured,
you could have doctors back in a command center and
robots there that are assisting them in surgeries in real time,
or even firefighters and public safety across the country. The
(03:33):
fact that a human can be commanding a robot somewhere
and saving a life is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, it's amazing also that you pointed out that there
are doctors there in the room, but they trusted the
robot more.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, it's a great that's a great point. But I
think it was a combination. I would argue that was
definitely a calculation. Lord forbid, something goes wrong. There's humans
there that can take over if the robot malfunctions, But
there is also a trust in the American doctor in Florida,
the American who was commanding that robot, and the doctor
(04:10):
the human in Florida who was operating through that robot. It, Yeah,
I get it. So it's both. I think my point is,
you know, there's this huge conversation and we talk about
you know, Americans are the most pessimistic about artificial intelligence.
You go to the polls suggest this, you go to
other parts of the world, they think artificial intelligence is
the next best thing. They're going to have more vacation time,
They're going to get to relax more. I mean, our
(04:32):
country invented artificial intelligence, and we're scaring ourselves out of it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, I think there is some scary parts to it.
We could talk about that, we said, but I do
think there's some scary parts to it. This isn't scary cool,
this is amazing. Let me ask you this then, however,
so you have the robot actually doing the surgery. I
know it's being commanded by a doctor. If the doctor
was in the room, would he allow the robot to
(04:56):
do it because it would be more precise.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
That's a great question. You know, I don't have the
answer to that, but definitely I'll write a follow up
on that because that's a brilliant question. Because when I
went down to Florida a couple it was like two
years ago now, for like a tech summit type of thing,
and they showed me these augmented reality glasses and it
was something straight out of a sci fi movie. It
(05:20):
was really really cool, and I thought, who's ever gonna
want to use AR? They call it augmented reality glasses.
So you put these glasses on and your computer screen
is meshed in. It's way better than the vision pro
stuff that's out there. But they said, your doctor has
to hold a clipboard when when the doctors and the oar.
But if they have the glasses on, they can get
all your vitals, all of your information, all of your
(05:41):
precision on where to make the connection through these this technology.
So the technology is merging with the human But I
think the biggest takeaway that I had is that we're
all going to have to learn to manage the technology.
So doctors, yes, they're gonna have to start in every profession,
but take doctors for example. They're gonna have to start
learning how to use and manage robots in the same
(06:03):
way that they've had to do other stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And we would also have to trust that technology as well.
You have so many other things to talk about, but
I was fascinated by this. I think this is the story.
So we'll have you back next week, right, And appreciate
it so every Friday, Kevin sareally thanks so much. A
futurist reporter. Can you fall in love? How about this?
Can you fall in love with an AI chat bot?
(06:25):
You can? You can? It's happened, several people have and
we'll talk about that next
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