I find it sad that these days, we have to depend on wireless motion sensors to alert us if our lone elderly staying in one-room apartments are well or injured, healthy or ill, alive or dead*.
I don't mean to be disrespect, but these sensors just do not make sense to me. Why can't we rely on our neighbours to check on us, just as we check on them? Why have solutions become so complicated these days? Why has technology replaced what we humans can easily do and should willing do?
Not to mention, this technology doesn't come cheap. I imagine that many, if not most of these elderly survive on public assistance, and $1000 is almost equivalent to three months of PA handouts, which translates to ninety days of food and rental. Although they may not be forking out the money for the installation, I am pretty sure these sensors will need to run on electricity.. don't they?
Plato was wrong, necessity is not the mother of all inventions. Many inventions are unnecessary, perpetuate apathy, and widen the gap between people's hearts.
* Footnote: With reference to "No more dying alone", The Straits Times, 12th November 2010, Prime A20.
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