IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

122 Chapter 6
we live longer, and they fear that escalating social, welfare, and health care
costs will soon be an intolerable burden on society. Business, for its part,
either ignores elderly people or assumes that they are all dependent and infirm.
James Pirkl, a leading expert on aging, is contemptuous of what he
calls the ‘‘myth of senility,’’ which states that all older people are either disabled,
decrepit, senile, or locked away in nursing homes. Frail elderly people
living in institutions, he points out, comprise less than 5 percent of the
over-sixty population. 29
The potential market for services that will enable us to live independently
as we age is vast—but it’s unclear who will pay for them. Elders
control nearly two-thirds of disposable consumer income in developed
countries, and people over sixty-five already control more than 77 percent
of all assets in the United States, but no old person I have ever met wants to
spend a penny on being ‘‘looked after.’’
The simplest way to think about design for old people is that ‘‘they’’ are
‘‘we.’’ Pirkl uses ‘‘transgenerational’’ design to bridge the physical and sensory
changes associated with aging—a process that most of us, after all, go
through starting the day we are born. 30 The European Design for Ageing
Network lists ubiquitous products that need to be modified to accommodate
older members of the population: packaging that opens without the
need to slice it (and, potentially, one’s hand) open with a knife; clothing
that is easy to wear and maintain but still looks good; chairs that are easy
to get into and out of; houses that can accommodate changing space
and equipment needs; clear signs and labeling on buildings, vehicles, and
products in shops; cups, door handles, light switches, supermarket carts—
the list is endless—that do not require the strength of a weightlifter, the
eyesight of Superman, or the patience of Job to handle. 31 We all can benefit
from the development of products that are sympathetic to the gradual decline
in vision, hearing, and movement capabilities that will affect us as we
age. 32 So there are practical reasons why elderly consumers are a good market
for services and products that adapt to their changing needs.
The majority of product and service innovation for elders treat the symptoms
of social isolation but not the causes. They are perceived as passive
recipients of ‘‘aging in place’’ infrastructures. Intel, for example, is exploring
‘‘a variety of proactive computing applications that could assist the
aging in the digital home environment. As the name suggests, proactive
computing is designed to anticipate people’s needs and take action to