New York state buys robots for lonely elders | Hacker News Reader

New York state buys robots for lonely elders

thesciverse.com

15 pointsvitabenes13 comments

People think automation will save humanity from the inverted population pyramid, but I think they are mistaken.

Automation is amazingly useful for building identical widgets, and also hopefully doing more unstructured tasks like picking certain fruits, but the cost and maintenance required for robots that can care for elderly people is probably going to be more than young people can sustain.

The cost for robots that can care for the elderly will be sustained by more than just young people.

Who else is there? Anyone retired is living off their own savings or tax paid by those who aren’t retired. Any cost to develop these robots is ultimately paid from that same pool.

Not all not young people are retired. Framing this as young vs old just passes the buck from the real issues with taxation - which I think is what you are really trying to highlight.

I think the maintenance involved for industrial robots is quite intensive.

This is an embarrassingly bad article.

The real article is here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-york-state-pur...

Can't think of a better thread than this one for mentioning this great and worth-seeing movie that ties right in (fictitiously): "The Robot and Frank" (2012).

> Couldn't 800 actual humans have interacted with our elders instead of 800 robots with their money? Just a crazy idea, everyone.

This is an amazingly out of touch conclusion, and I've got to wonder if the author has any significant experience caring for elderly window(er)s. It is emotionally tiring work, that is ultimately never done. Because when you leave to take care of your own life, they go back to sitting around idle and the lonely time starts accumulating again. They all complain about the overwhelming silence [0].

About the best solution is hiring a helper for a few days a week, to come in with fresh energy, do that emotional labor, and let the elderly person self-actualize through their helper. But many elderly people who could afford to do so are still hesitent to, because they're set in their ways, and also depressed and don't see the point of doing anything.

The current de facto "solution" is lots of TV watching and becoming lost to the criminally malevolent "news" that tells them the world is falling apart. This increases their isolation, and also the work for others to interact with them. Any solution that enables elderly people to engage in interactive constructive dialog at their own speed is a massive step up, modulo the corporate dystopia malincentives.

[0] From my own experience it only takes around 2 weeks of being alone for me to start hallucinating human faces in inanimate objects, and I'm an introvert. Our brains are wired for social stimulation.

Is it not possible to introduce these widows and widowers to each other to form new social groups in a self sustaining way?

IME, not really. They're set in their ways and patterns. To get any action out of an elderly person, caregivers have to put much more effort in. Their attitude basically boils down to "I don't need it", whether it is engaging with technology, leaving the house to see someone they already know, or anything that takes work (which is everything).

Could a social network with real people be better than a "robot", while having similar activation energy? Perhaps. But the ultimate problem is a complete lack of self actualization due to complete disruption of their calcified patterns. So any technology is going to have to be very purpose-tailored, and still overtly pushed by caregivers. Faceboot and "senior centers" are for grey-haired young people.

Thanks for taking the time to write up your firsthand perspective!

I was skeptical after reading the Smithsonian article (because hell if I’d personally want one of these robots in old age), but your explanation of their utility makes a lot of sense and fully changed my opinion.

I feel like investing in online social stuff would be more effective

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