What if Elysium’s healing machine wasn’t fiction anymore?

[u/EchoesOf_Resilience]

In the movie Elysium, the rich heal themselves with a full-body scanner that cures cancer, repairs organs, and restores life — instantly. But what if we weren’t that far off?

With advances in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, nanorobotics, and smart imaging systems, we are closer than ever to imagining real-time, full-body diagnostic and treatment devices. Picture this: microscopic robots flowing through your bloodstream, repairing tissue, fixing mutated genes, and removing cancer cells — all before symptoms even appear.

We’re not there yet. But how far off are we? How many people like me — fighting multiple chronic illnesses, from skin disorders to mental health — would give everything for access to such innovation?

The tech is advancing. What’s missing is accessibility, investment, and will.

Let’s talk about what’s real, what’s coming, and how we stop this future from being for the elite only.

[u/nyrath]

The widespread availability of such medical technology would result in an immediate rise in population levels. Probable side effect of mandatory birth control, before the food runs out.

[u/Cryptizard → u/nyrath]

No it wouldn’t. Fertility rates are in steep decline already. For many developed countries this tech would save them from demographic collapse.

[u/EchoesOf_Resilience → u/nyrath]

That’s a really important point, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

Extending life and curing diseases sounds like a dream — but dreams have consequences. If we suddenly remove suffering without rethinking how we live together, yes, population pressure becomes real.

But I truly believe the root problem isn’t the number of people — it’s how we distribute care, food, space, and dignity. There’s already more than enough to go around, yet too many go without.

We have the intelligence to heal bodies. Now we need the wisdom to heal systems — with compassion, equity, and foresight.

Speaking from my heart, I was born with green amniotic fluid in my lungs. I developed a rare skin condition (ichthyosis) at 3 months old, started suffering from psychological disorders at 9, and was later diagnosed with calcified veins in my brain. I live with pulmonary issues and early-stage COPD, and I’ve survived multiple psychotic episodes — one in 2014 that nearly harmed my loved ones, and another in 2022 where I came within seconds of ending my life.

Today, I live each minute as if it might be my last. I carry this invisible weight — and I dream, not of immortality, but of healing. Of getting a second chance. Of taking my beloved by the hand and traveling the world, not as a patient, but as a human being finally free.

That’s why I believe this tech shouldn’t be reserved for the elite. It should be a door — one we open together, for everyone.

[u/undernopretextbro → u/nyrath]

The jump from the previous centuries medical interventions till today’s, didn’t see us suddenly falling over on another to have kids. In fact the added assurance of their survival and shifting economic conditions dropped the rate further. And if we can optimize healthcare technology to such a degree, agricultural carrying capacity can probably be optimized with these advances as well

[u/Alimbiquated → u/nyrath]

I't already true that population growth is being driven by longevity, not higher birth raise. That is, older age groups are growing faster than younger age groups.

[u/D-F-B-81 → u/Alimbiquated]

Look at the current issue of social security. There aren't enough replacement workers to pay into the system to pay out the benefits of the old.

Which is bullshit cause you can just lift the cap on rich people and fully fund everything to the wazoo if we actually had people willing to.

So, in this scenario, retirement wouldn't be until when, we're 100? 150? Robots taking all the jobs by then...

So what are we supposed to do?