TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND THE OLDER SELF
by retired social researcher, Bill Sheppard, Sheffield UK
In our never-ending quest to understand what it means to be human, scientists have made great strides in mapping brain processes. But there’s a very different approach to understanding consciousness which AI and robotic engineers will find interesting. This is the tradition which argues the human essence isn’t found within the individual mind, even less within the body. Instead it exists amidst the entire assemblage of personal relationships which an individual builds up over a life-time and extends to all those social forces which orientate and structure our practices at different stages of the life-course. This is the realm of the social self and understanding its centrality to “Being Human” is essential if we’re to design technology which deepens our inter-connectedness rather than building digital walls around ourselves.
My particular interest is technology useful to older people. The reason for this is a selfish one. I’m a retired civil servant in his mid-60s so I’ve a self-declared interest in designers getting it right. More immediately, I’m witnessing more than enough examples of distressing physical conditions and resultant social isolation among older relatives and friends. Now I accept that faced with the concrete problems facing bio-engineers, the notion of a social self may seem a bit abstract. However, when you trace the history of the concept back through philosophy and sociological discourse — not to mention ideas drawn from psycho-analysis — one thing becomes clear. Human beings are constantly constructing and re-constructing their social selves as they interact with others in environments which are changing at an ever-faster pace. This process doesn’t stop as you get older no matter how much we might wish it did. Actually, as the body declines with age, we’re forced to engage in major subjective re-evaluations. My hope is that creative young people appreciate this and design stuff which allows us to engage with our older bodies and with each other in innovative ways, right to the very end. Indeed, my personal wish is that the “End of Life Experience” is so technologically ramped that it’s the envy of the living!
The current reality is far from my aspirations as I’m fully aware from recent personal experiences. Also there’s plenty of research into social care and loneliness among the elderly which confirms that growing old is too often about being trapped in a nightmare. This is not just because of complex, chronic medical conditions but also due to wide-spread poverty. Lack of money exerts negative feed-back loops on ill-health through poor diets, lack of money to engage in social activities, cold homes and stress. Much of this can’t be cured by medical advances or smart technology, indeed innovation will increase inequality if large-sections of the older population are unable to access it through the market. But there are also some encouraging signs that “bio-power” may not always be a monopoly of the rich, especially if technologists are dedicated to delivering affordable and accessible things.
A recent article throws some light on what’s possible and provides a positive end to this short contribution on technology and the older social self (1). The use of smart phones reduces with age and income while icon and text size becomes an increasing problem as eye-sight declines with age across all income groups. Nevertheless, there’s an increasing interest in developing devices which contribute to “Ambient Assisted Living Systems”, especially for the very elderly. Senior App Suites integrate mobile computing with web and social care services with the potential to reduce both loneliness and the impact of accidents through emergency detection. Their impact can be significantly increased through combining mobile innovations with smart drugs and innovative interior design, including the use of soft furniture and flooring. Robots are likely to play an increasing role not only in helping to maintain independent living but in providing companionship. Ideas such as these may contribute to social interventions such as that currently being pioneered by the Red Cross to reduce the massive incidence of loneliness within local communities (2). All these innovations offer the potential for creative responses to “being an older human”.
1 .http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9709/4/3/15
2.http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Health-and-social-care/Independent-living/Loneliness-and-isolation/Response
