In the state-of-the-art hospital operating room, 67-year-old Eugene Bem lies anesthetized, pierced through the chest by three narrow, stainless-steel rods held by aluminum and plastic mechanical arms draped in translucent vinyl. Under way in the operating room is a critical portion of a heart bypass operation, but missing is the customary crowd of surgeons around the patient. Instead, in a corner across the room, a cardiac surgeon sits alone at a computer, his back to the operating table. Hunched over an enveloping, streamlined console, his feet tapping at pedal switches and fingers rapidly manipulating sensitive handheld controllers, the doctor in surgical scrubs could pass for some silent-movie mad scientist at his mighty Wurlitzer organ.

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