The New York Times featured an interesting article yesterday titled “Helper Robots Are Steered, Tentatively, To Care for the Aging” and it discusses technology that is almost here that will allow us to have robots in our homes to do certain tasks – and those robots will even be able to assist the disabled or elderly in doing certain tasks. The is subject of having robots assist elderly people in their homes brings up the debate of how much technology in our lives can be considered too much because the argument can be made that people should take care of people and that robots shouldn’t. However, this subject is likely to be in the news frequently in the near future because the number of people over the age of 65 is growing and the number of human workers that are available to assist people with special needs, including the elderly, is shrinking.
And on another note the article makes another interesting point – that the seniors that were asked about having a robot in their home to assist them wanted the robots to look as human as possible if they were doing anything other than mundane tasks like vacuuming the floor.
It is an interesting article and you can access it via the following link:
Have a great day!
Linda R.
P.S. And don’t forget if you just bought, or received as a gift a new tablet, e-reader, PC or other tech item and would like to know more about how to use it — you can make an appointment at the library for a free On-On-One tech session and a member of our tech team will show you the digital ropes! Call the Reference Desk at: 607-936-3713 to make an appointment! Did I mention it is a free service the library offers? It is!
References
Bilton, Nick. (2013, May 20). Disruptions: Helper Robots Are Steered, Tentatively, To Care for the Aging:
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 