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Aging Japan Looks to Bots For Care
An anonymous reader writes to mention a Yahoo! news article about robotics in Japan. While many research bots are working on interacting with their environment, some of Japan's commercial robotics are focusing on building bots for elderly care. From the article: "The 100-kilogram (220-pound) robot can also distinguish eight different kinds of smells, can tell which direction a voice is coming from and uses powers of sight to follow a human face. 'In the future, we would like to develop a capacity to detect a human's health condition through his breath,' Mukai said. Japan is bracing for a major increase in needs for elderly care due to a declining birth rate and a population that is among the world's longest living." That sure sounds familiar.
We have the problem of people in high places just looking out for themselves -- caring for them won't be their problem; life-extension or other medical advances won't be in developed in time to help them, etc.
And the sad part is, when younger people get into those places, we will probably do that same thing.
DYWYPI?
Versus about 4 million yen for a real live nurse, if only Japan was more accepting of foreign labour to look after all the old folk.
I don't think its so much racism as pride. Which is more preferrable, being able to push a button to raise your bed into a sitting position and then using an assisted walker to make it on your own to the bathroom (for the third time that night), or calling out weakly to your nurse at 4am and hoping they hear you and respond before you wet the bed.
from the article you wanted (posted above)
Interacting with other people can be difficult for the Japanese, he says, "because they always have to think about what the other person is feeling, and how what they say will affect the other person." But it is impossible to embarrass a robot, or be embarrassed, by saying the wrong thing.
The simple truth is you can't be a burden to a machine. Putting it all down to racism is akin to saying that American's elderly is so accustom to thinking of other races as beneath them that they have don't get embarressed by it at all.
You need people to get old and die.
Most people who lived believing that demonic posession rather than germs were responsible for sickness died still believing it. They were just eventually replaced by people whose minds were open to new theories.
If people don't die die, old (wrong) ideas will never die, and humans will never improve.
...and all that crap. All the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans I've ever known from those countries take family obligations and expectations very seriously. (Warning! Gross generalization detected!)
I find it hard to believe that a culture as deeply grounded in society and family as the Japanese would actually "abandon" their elderly. I'm more inclined to believe that there are simply not enough young bodies to care for the old bodies. Caring for an elderly person who is losing mobility and strength is a lot of work, and it seems the older they get, the more they try to hang on to their independence. Tools that will compensate for the deficiencies of an aging body are a way to allow a person to be independent longer and maintain their dignity. Nursing care is when you have to be given baths, medications, meals and helped to walk or wheel to the bathroom. Independence is being able to dress yourself, go where you want, transport your own groceries, clean your own house, cook your own food and accomplish the tasks that make your life worth living, such as gardening or reading. Reading books might now take a magnifying glass, but the magnifying glass gives you the independence to read the book when and where you want. (The average Japanese living space is crowded with lots of things in too little space. It's a lot like living in a submarine. Things are put away, and many times lots of things must be moved to do ordinary tasks like sewing or ironing. For the elderly, this could present a major problem.)
The immigration of nursing care is probably acceptable to someone who needs it, but a "companion" from a different culture, who doesn't share your history and doesn't speak your language well, is less desirable than being independent. (I wonder how many of the people who point to the availability of Indonesian and Filipino "care assistants" are the same who bitch because the Dell or HP technical support in Bangalore doesn't meet their standards..!?! Why is not wanting to be touched by a cultural stranger more "racist" than wanting to be able to clearly understand the person at the other end of the tech support phone?)
Mike Burke
"The mind works quicker than you think!"