Good Afternoon All. It was great to see so many of you on our short livestream. We talked about Lent, Audiaphora, and how more people are going to church than before.
Here is my talk from last week. Here is a really nice write-up about the whole conference. And here is my article in WORLD today—just a taste of it:
The American population is getting older, in age if not in wisdom--a circumstance precipitated by a declining birth rate over many decades. According to the Population Reference Bureau, “The number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 (a 47% percent increase), and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population is projected to rise from between 17% to 23%.” And America is not alone. South Korea, Japan, China, most of Europe—a crisis of care is already here. There are not enough young people with the means or inclination to take care of the millions of people reaching the age when care is precisely what is required.
With disaster looming, countries like Singapore are pouring millions of dollars into technology. Robots capable of performing light domestic tasks lengthen the time older people can retain their independence. For those in nursing facilities, robots lift them, conduct their exercise classes, entertain them, and monitor their medications. Researchers are even developing AI technology to detect emotional trouble like depression. A company called SoundKeepers collects “voice biomarkers to detect early signs of depression among seniors.” The AI distinguishes between “subtle … acoustic properties—such as changes in pitch or tone.”
The research involves taking voice samples that, SoundKeepers promises, will be “anonymized and stored in a secure central storage terminal” and used only in health care settings. “We don’t want people to use it unlawfully,” explains SoundKeepers, “So even when we use it in the community, it must be to licensed people, with permission from the person to record their voices. … Otherwise, it will be dangerous.”
Robots are only ever “intended as a support” for medical professionals and care providers, “rather than a replacement.” Even though some are being developed to be controlled remotely, their designers assure us they would never cause harm. Human care is good, obviously, in that it doesn’t require years of research and millions of lines of code to produce. And yet….
Read the whole thing! And scroll down for a few pics of the drive.
And have a lovely day if you’re into that sort of thing.
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