Haptic technology staff set up the machine and prepare the patient, and rather than travel to an operating room, the surgeon becomes a telepresence. This allows expert surgeons to operate from across the country, increasing availability of expert medical care. Haptic technology provides tactile and resistance feedback to surgeons as they operate the robotic device. As the surgeon makes an incision, they feel ligaments as if working directly on the patient. , researchers at Stanford University were developing technology to simulate surgery for training purposes. Simulated operations allow surgeons and surgical students to practice and train more. Haptic technology aids in the
Analogy of the sun region in which truth and real being brightly shine, it understands and knows it and appears to have reason; but when it has nothing to rest on but that which is mingled with darkness—that which becomes and perishes, it opines, it grows dim-sighted, changing opinions up and down, and is like something without reason. ('The Republic, VI: 508d; trans. W. H. D. Rouse) The allusion to "...that which becomes and perishes..." relates to all of that which is perceived by the bodily senses. The bodily senses make it clear that all visible things are subject to change, which Socrates categorizes