18 pointsby thm2 hours ago8 comments
  • KaiserProan hour ago
    I'm assuming that they've not been to a "normal" UK carehome now.

    Its staffed with minimum wage workers who are in perilous conditions, with no support, time or backup. They are cleaning shit a piss all day long, and being shouted at for being foreign by the demented.

    • helterskelter5 minutes ago
      Not much different than the US, really. I had to hire some at-home care for a relative with brain cancer, and almost all of them were drunk on the job, falling asleep when they were supposed to be monitoring at night, or getting offended at something their patient said, who's mental state resembles that of a psychotic 8 year old. Oh and if you don't lock shit up, some of them will steal.

      At a certain point, you fire so many there aren't any left in the area. I moved my relative to another area for unrelated reasons, but it was the same story at the new place too.

      There were a few really good ones tbh, but 95% were in private care because nobody else would hire them.

    • chaostheory37 minutes ago
      I feel that this is the case in most developed countries unless you can afford to pay $10,000 - $20,000 per month for an upscale nursing home.

      Robots might make it a little less terrible.

  • joefourier35 minutes ago
    Personally I feel like it would be less undignified and infantilising to have a machine take care of my basic bodily functions than a human being. There's no feeling of judgement or being shamed in front of someone else, and the machine could even restore a feeling of autonomy since it would feel like you're using a tool instead of being helplessly reliant on another person's help.
    • jolmg8 minutes ago
      More likely than not, a human would be remote controlling it, at least at times. So, they're there, you just can't see them seeing you.
  • BoredPositron41 minutes ago
    Give me the freedom to end my life when I want to end it and you don't have to care about my care and I bet I am not the only one.
    • chasil24 minutes ago
      Can you guarantee that you will feel the same as your mobility becomes more and more restricted?

      Do you think that your current resolve is correct for everyone around you, and should be generally mandated?

      I agree to a reluctance to rely upon others, in the face of infirmity, but will I have the courage to forego that reliance in euthasia? I don't know.

      • jolmg4 minutes ago
        > and should be generally mandated?

        or even encouraged?

    • nradov33 minutes ago
      Sure, but a lot of those elderly people have some significant degree of dementia. That make it difficult to go out on your own terms.
      • kakacik20 minutes ago
        This can be covered in advance, when you can set what to do with your organs after death, or whether to resuscitate you or not and so on, it can be done for this scenario.

        In advanced societies of course, but we have few and unfortunate people travel from far and wide to reach those services.

  • analog8374an hour ago
    Facebook can do a pretty good necro-avatar. That's better than flesh. Cheaper than a retirement home too.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted-patent-for-ai-l...

  • mindslightan hour ago
    Is this headline a humblebrag about being able to afford a plane ticket to the US?

    Eldercare has been quite dystopian here for quite some time. You don't need robots to be dystopian, rather just the casual indifference of a paperclip-maximizing bureaucracy. I can't read the article, but it seems like these robots at least move around and interact rather than merely being an automated process that automatically checks off boxes like "patient turned" and "bed cleaned". So they would appear to be a step up from the current absurd staffing ratios.

  • mrlonglongan hour ago
    Please stop paying any attention to the Torygraph / Reformgraph. It used to be good decades ago but now it just spews propaganda nowadays.
  • Aprechean hour ago
    Someone watched Roujin Z and thinks they are so smart.