I look at innovative services/apps that target the elderly as something that may not be as relevant to the current elderly generation, but in 10-20 years when more tech-savvy people have aged there will be a huge need for services like this. Elderly people in even 10 years from now will own smart phones.
I totally agree. It's about fixing problems ahead of time. The only problem is that without a drive now, the tech could disappear, and when it finally does become relevant, an argument might be made that "it didn't work before, so it's not going to work now".
> in 10-20 years when more tech-savvy people have aged there will be a huge need for services like this
The need is for people to be mobile and to not get run over, not for them to have something that can use their gadget for.
And what does tech-savyness have to do with it? I forgot more about tech than the average person learns, and that is why I don't have a smartphone. Not because I'm so scared of it, but because I like to get shit done, and I know how to configure and operate an actual computer to do so. So speaking of the future, will people be allowed to not be chipped in some way, or will we continue to invent straw men for the choice not to be, as if opting out is the problem rather than needing everybody to opt in?
Here's an idea: if you have a smart phone, walk to the middle island, press the button again, and play tic tac toe or whatever fancy stuff it can do. The person who is forced to just watch cars for 2 minutes instead, let's get a solution for them first. It will also work for the smartphone owner so they're not really second, it's just that you don't waste time coming up with a non-solution first. That's what'd happen if we didn't use the disabled and elderly to put a nice face on our emerging dystopia, but I know that's way too radical.
Just today I saw the saddest thing in the subway. Two toddlers in a big carriage next to me, when I saw them I had to grin at first, as they were moving around and making sounds, spreading a spirit of liveliness as toddlers tend to do. But then daddy handed them two big tablets (the one for the girl was pink, I shit you not), and they started both watch a cartoon and fell silent, the girl with her back turned to her brother. They couldn't even talk yet it seemed, since they had just made noises before. The father seemed super fond and attentive of them, it would have been easier to stomach if he had seemed loveless... but he wanted to make the train ride more enjoyable to them, that's all. This is the best way he knew how. I died a little inside taking all that in in the span of a few minutes, and I doubt I will fully recover. I had to look away at some point because I felt like crying. Never mind turning me off from the always on blinkenlights hanging jaw lifestyle, never mind my own doubts about having kids just for Moloch to eat them as they bounce around like hollow pinballs, this was fit to turn me off public transportation. And I've seen, and smelled, some horrid stuff, I saw some very depressed or sick people. But nothing stung like this.
