An interesting article from the weirdest source: the CS Monitor on the MIT Media Lab's new director Frank Moss. Among many others, one of his objectives is to push the research towards more social causes and

"to more strongly focus the Media Lab on confronting "some of the looming social problems we have today," including the healthcare challenges of an aging population.

He sees more healthcare being delivered in the home ("health without hospitals") through technologies such as the ability to "project a physical presence" to a remote location by manipulating a proxy robot. If Moss could project his own physical presence to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, to look in on his aging father "and do basic things for him, that'd be a wonderful thing," he says. "I think that physical projection may be as commonplace 20 years from today as digital projection is today.""

This is interesting in terms of how the highest people on the innovation ladder think of social services. Can technology really solve everything? Especially with a community of people, the elderly, who have never been used to it and are hardly technology natives as most children are now? Is it possible to introduce technology in people's lives without prior education? Is technology a necessity in the services we provide and develop or the invisible backbone of services that cater to behaviors that are natural to the elderly?

CATEGORY: AGEING