New Now Know How

a-me:obsessivecompulsive:lauterhaus:laughingsquid:

Heart beat posting device lets your Twitter followers know you’re alive

Not that this is a canonical example, but what is it with X-sensing devices that prompts people to turn them into things that communicate someone’s continuing existence?

How many research papers are there that have some variation on the “ambient-awareness of your ageing parent’s continued existence derived by their {movement|plant watering|microwave use|etc}” theme?

Is anxiety over an elderly relative’s imminent death so pervasive a meme that is manages to appear in all new technological applications? Would George Lakoff find it to be some sort of metaphor? Technology is connection? Do we feel so guilty about our increased social distance from our elders that we try to bridge that distance through technology? Are these technologies really a solution to any sort of social problem?