"Where are we?" Take Two, Three, F.... (witheringcare?)

In Five Senses, Serres does not overtly discuss mortality, loss, depletion and omission (Connor, 1999). Management consultants advise that to succeed ‘think outside the box’, but the population pyramid is casting an ever larger shadow, highlighting an ageing population and the box is frequently found full and yet empty? Plaques disconnect, disable the memory; the critical biological box no longer registers and connects. The noise that counts, the background bioelectrical hum is disrupted or absent. Memories once ready to roll downhill, surfing the wave of potential are inaccessible, if marshalled at all. Wither the neural crossroads; the informatique mote in Hermes’ eye?

Our older people, those not yet ephemeral have become peripheral, their personal space an adjunct to furniture. New quantities in life, beg questions of quality, especially quality of care and what it means to care. The concept of self, person-hood is a prime distinguishing factor in terms of describing the attitudes of cultures and communities to older adults and memory loss. In the developed nations the debate continues: is this the price of a long life, or a way of life? In a search for the locus of informatics: the sign on this door reads deep informatics. Listen carefully, as inside the seniors are cared for at home (touched*) remotely courtesy of telecare solutions. The values here of course extend from inappropriate use of informatics to lack of access to such services (Barlow et al., 2006). ...




*For Serres touch is the interface.




We must ensure remote care is not a total substitute for face-to-face interaction.

Barlow, J., Bayer, S., Curry, R. (2006). Implementing Complex Innovations in Fluid Multi-Stakeholder Environments: Experiences of ‘Telecare’, Technovation, 26, 3, pp.396-406.

Connor, S. (1999). Michel Serres’ Five Senses.
Retrieved May 19, 2007, from http://stevenconnor.com/5senses.html

From submitted chapter: Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons - forthcoming...

P.S. Sorry about the two posts today - trying to figure some things out...