Companion Robots: A New Way to Betray the Elders
... and make a buck
This story is about the so called “companion robots” for elders.
A bossy spy with puppy eyes: Miro-E
Meet Miro (Miro-E), a cute robot designed allegedly to help the elders—but really to undercut the expectation of being taken care of by the family members during one’s old age—and to make a buck on promoting the benefits of zombiehood for all.
Why do I have so few kind words to say about this? Well, because this is yet another act of treachery. Yes, out of loneliness, people can accept a lie and get attached to an inanimate device that is programmed to mimic basic behavior of a living being, as if it were alive. Yes, being deprived of healthy emotional “food” makes people do all sorts of tragic things. But is this a way to live? And is this a way to spend one’s old age—being lonely and getting “nudged” and spied on by an electronic device with a Disney face? What treachery, again.
(And advertising? Can you imagine how easy it will be to “suggest” to the needy elders to “ask about” this new expensive drug? For their own good, of course… Oh and this spy robot could then instantly “connect” to an AI “doctor,” who could both “recommend” and prescribe the expensive drug, right there on the spot? Sheer business genius, that eldercare robot. Infinite opportunities for “growth,” as long as the friendly Fed keeps printing the money… but I digress.)
Anyway, here is the digital eldercare device with puppy-like Disney eyes.
And here is a glorious, Hollywood style commercial:
“Old people problem”
Oh, oh, we have an “old people problem” where in the developed world, the population is declining and there are not enough young people to take care of the old. What to do?!!!
Really, what to do, what a challenge—because suggesting that people should simply have more children and raise them to be caring would be a terrible insult to the current and future profits of the biomedical industry! What a ridiculous thing to suggest!
The actual old problem: lying in order to steal
The Very Important Investors in Every Industry would much rather “levy” everything we do, from breathing to childbirth. To them, the rest of the human race exist to “feed” them.
They do many intricate tricks to mess with people’s heads and shape the perceived reality in such a way that even the most ridiculous things feel “normal” if not desirable (or inevitable, at least).
And when the people on the receiving end of their tricks don’t fight with tooth and claw and don’t insist with every breath to have the spiritual clarity and the dignity, the confusion moves in (and stays until the people stop cooperating with the liars).
As far as the narratives to “justify” the lie, the narratives are very easy to install when the people are willing to shrink themselves and comply. It could be any lie: institutional theology, biosecurity state, victory of communism or sustainable development. Narratives are disposable, the principle theft remains.
Like I wrote in my 2021 article about the war on natural immunity and ability,
I posit that in logical and commercial terms, this war on the natural world, natural immunity—and natural ability at large—can be explained with clarity in terms of what is known as the “blue ocean strategy,” with an infusion of transhumanist ideology of human body as a [product] platform.
The blue ocean strategy is a business strategy that proposes creating a brand new market out of thin air and dominating it (a blue ocean)—as opposed to trying to compete in an existing market (an ocean red with blood).
Here’s how it applies to natural immunity. A healthy person with a natural immunity might be a happy person—but to a 2021 biotech entrepreneur, who views the human body as a market to dominate, he is a sheer insult. From the standpoint of that entrepreneur, replacing the default natural immunity of the past millions years with a fully artificial tool that requires a “subscription” throughout one’s entire lifetime (see “variants” and “boosters”) is desirable. Replacing the default natural immunity with an artificial tool is a very successful case of creating a brand new market (“artificial immunity market”) out of air. A life-long subscription to artificial immunity, with an ever-expanding range of necessary “upgrades,” is a lot more profitable than some rookie traditional shop selling vitamins. Even better, if artificial immunity destroys the natural immunity, customer loyalty is guaranteed. See how elegant?
Joseph Weizenbaum and ELIZA
Joseph Weizenbaum was a prominent computer scientist (including at the MIT) who created ELIZA, the first “chatbot,” as a fun creative project, for his intellectual exploration. He passed away in 2008, may he rest in peace. He was indeed a brilliant scientist but also a decent human being and, once he saw the practical consequences of his work and where others were trying to take it, he tried to put the genie back in the bottle—but was seemingly pushed aside.
Here is his obituary in the LA Times. And here is an 2008 Davos panel (with annoying simultaneous translation) during which he argued with his co-panelists about the virtues of AI, etc. You can observe the dynamic of the interaction, how they smirk at the “old man,” etc.
And yes, it’s been known since Joseph Weizenbaum created his ELIZA that people tend to “animate” life-mimicking machines in their heads. A lot of people are emotionally deprived and—consciously or subconsciously—seek out understanding an intimacy. “AI” gives an illusion of intimacy while at the same time providing an illusion of “being in charge” of how the “relationship” goes. It’s all psychology 101, really, but it works.
Here is a trailer for the documentary about him that I highly recommend: “Plug and Pray.”
At least the robot bosses will be culturally sensitive, yay!
Of course, in order to achieve a better market penetration, the machines need to be culturally-sensitive. Thank God.
CARESSES (short for Culture-Aware Robots and Environmental Sensor Systems for Elderly Support) is a multidisciplinary, international project whose goal is to design the first care robots that adapt the way they behave and speak to the culture of the person they assist.
CARESSES is funded by the European Union and by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.
And here is a very sad video of a very cure “eldercare” robot used in Japan.
And an notorious ice-cream commercial that I wrote about last year.
One day, this insanity will end, and the elders will be taken care of by their family members—so that the elders get the respect and the love they deserve, and the young ones learn and grow their souls (the reason we are here on Earth, anyway).
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When I finally traveled outside the US for the first time I spent a great deal of time in Latin America. I traveled light, backpacking, outside of tourist areas, getting to know the people I met without those artificial barriers. One of the biggest differences that stuck with me was the commitment to family that was prevalent there, in stark contrast to the US and even much of western Europe. Multiple generations will often live together there. Which has wonderful benefits I hadn't even considered. I've always been a very free spirit, an explorer, adventurer, cherishing my freedom and seeing family ties as an adult to enjoy on my own time, not daily. I love my freedom. It's how I was raised and enculturated.
But my travel showed me that maintaining strong family contact, even living with family has great value that our society is sorely lacking, the pendulum having swung too far away from the grounding, love and caring that multigenerational family life provides.
For one, when children share a house with parents and grandparents a caretaker is always available. No need to pay a babysitter or drop the kids off at daycare. Where a $12/hr stranger (we pay more like $40/hr to their employer) is entrusted to care for your most precious creation. While many daycare workers are caring, loving people there's no better caretaker than a loving family member. Even the difficult ones. Blood is blood. So while the parent works the grandparents tend to the young children.
Then as the grandparents age and the children begin to grow up, become teenagers the roles sort of reverse, with the older children assisting their elderly grandparents through their daily lives, help care for them as they become less and less capable of caring for themselves. Again, not having to pay home health aides, strangers, to look after them, or pay to warehouse them in assisted living or nursing home, getting the same $12/hr strangers to care for our most cherished family members.
Our society's family values are actually quite insane when you think about it. Turning over those people we have the most connection with, the most love for each other to the care of strangers just doing their jobs. This isn't an indictment of those who do those jobs. But with rare exception in extremely dysfunctional and abusive family constructs, we love and care for our own blood more than we do a stranger.
The use of robots to act as caretakers for our most cherished and valuable people in our lives is an affront to our humanity. It's a level of selfishness that exceeds the lows our culture has already sunk to by reducing the importance of family as we have, especially recognizing how other cultures elevate and exalt the importance of family. If anything we should be tacking more towards the healthier multigenerational family constructs found in Latin America and many other regions of the world than further away into our selfish narcissistic pursuits. Robot caretakers, even cute machines designed to trick our brains into humanizing lead to a Dystopian, inhumane future. We have much to learn from those our society considers poor, unenlightened and backwards.
There is some help that some elders might prefer from robots. Like help with the restroom, bathing and other things that might cause embarrassment and are normally private. In that case it should be seen as an accessibility tool. Why aren’t they focusing their efforts there instead of toward this inhuman companionship BS, which is inherently fake. And there is already a non-human solution for this. They are called pets. But, I’ve suddenly seen a lot if anti-pet stuff from some environmentalists.