A New World
Abstract
Medical advancements have led to a considerable increase in life expectancy and a subsequent rise in the demand for caretakers. In the future healthcare industry, geriatric robots have the potential to replace aged-care jobs, to assist elderly with daily care activities, engage in conversation, and simulate empathy in their interactions. While some argue that only human caregivers can engage emotionally with patients, others reason that the ability for robots to simulate emotions is equivalent to human care, as humans often refrain from forming emotional connections with their patients. In order to explore emotional engagement in caretaking and the future of geriatric robots, I wrote a fictional story that takes place in a future world split into 2 hemispheres: (1) The New World, in which human tasks are dominated by robots and human expression of “negative” emotions is forbidden (2) The Old World, a society that encourages expression of all emotions. My inspirations to write “A New World” included: (1) my mother’s relationship with her father, an Alzheimer’s Disease patient (2) my interest in the controversial future of automated healthcare. The piece will follow a woman’s journey from the Old World to the New World to visit her father – an Alzheimer’s patient who is taken care of by robots. The process involved in producing this project included conducting 3 individual interviews and 2 group interviews with my mother and her siblings to gain insight into their evolving relationships with my grandfather. Short stories and journal articles that discussed geriatric robots and family caregiving for Alzheimer’s patients served as a basis for writing from a future-perspective, in which each chapter was narrated by a different character. Through this piece, I aimed to tackle the intersection of family caretaking for dementia patients and ethics of healthcare robotics from a unique perspective.
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Part I: Robot
HUMAN DETECTED
Laser activated.
Scanning features.
Ten…Nine…Eight…Seven…
Analyzing tone of voice.
Six….Five….
BEEP.
Four…Three…
Alert: Registering EMOTION
BEEP.
Analyzing facial features.
Water droplets. 2 centimeters below eye. Detected.
Registering EMOTION
BEEP.
Analyzing lip curvature.
BEEP.
Registering EMOTION
Registering EMOTION
Registering EMOTION
BEEP.
BEEP.
BEEP.
BEEP.
EXIT MODE
YOU MUST EXIT THE 2129 PEREGRINE RESIDENCY NOW.
YOU MUST EXIT THE 2129 PEREGRINE RESIDENCY NOW.
YOU MUST EXIT THE 2129 PEREGRINE RESIDENCY NOW.
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Part II: Aynur
“Then what happened?”
Gently unfolding her wrinkled left hand as it rested on mine, I placed the assortment of Kristy’s pink, green, and white night medications into her palm. “I didn’t want to go, but I was forced to leave.”
“That’s it dear?”
“There wasn’t any other choice. I didn’t leave at first when Dada’s Newtobot began ringing its alarms, but 5 more Newtobots rolled out to escort me away from Dada.”
“Honey, how did the Newtobot look?!? I’ve never been there before.” Kristy almost shuddered as she mouthed “there”.
Newtobot? There? What’s “there”?
Let’s rewind the clock back 18 years. It’s March 2028 and Alfred Rushford, the founder of the California technology startup Robotech changes the world with just one invention: the Newtobot, a fully automated robot that is capable of performing any human mechanical task, from driving to cooking to caregiving. In the span of just a few months, the Newtobots began to take over nearly every occupation in certain countries, provoking a heated debate across the population as people lost their jobs. Soon, the world became polarized into 2 sides: the portion that supported automation using the Newtobot, versus those who did not. Once hundreds of riots began breaking out, the consensus was to divide the globe into the New World in the Western hemisphere and the Old World in the Eastern hemisphere.
As initial rumors of Rushford’s proposed invention spread across communities, I became the lone wolf of my family – the only one who did not sit at the dining table oo-ing and awe-ing at the thought of this Newtobot. By day, more and more news reports broadcasted the company’s exponential progress, making it clear that my nightmare would soon translate into reality. My older sister, younger brother, and father, who were always huge fans of Alfred Rushford, seemed to have already finalized their decisions to follow Mr. Rushford’s path even before the world was split.
For me, the decision eventually came down to a dilemma between my job and family. While it would’ve taken little to no hesitation to stay in the Old World if I did not factor my family into this resolution, the bigger question was whether I was willing to separate from Dada and my siblings. As my mind went back and forth, I soon realized that, if I moved to the New World, I would be forced to work for Mr. Rushford. 2028 was my first year working as a nurse for the elderly, and I couldn’t imagine working in any field outside of healthcare. Yes, it was mentally and physically exhausting, but making a difference in my patients’ lives was more than worth it.
From the very beginning of this “robot revolution”, I was skeptical. While the idea of robots performing tasks like vacuuming and washing dishes never astounded me entirely, the thought of robots replacing caretakers and doctors bewildered me. Even if these robots physically could be engineered to dispense pills and perform an open heart surgery, how would they replicate emotions and patient-worker relationships? That’s the issue – they cannot. While there have been rumors that Rushford’s next plan at Robotech was to program robots to simulate human emotions, I do not foresee a future in which patients would comfortably speak and connect to robots.
Even worse, Rushford demanded for the Newtobots to regularly scan facial features of humans in the New World to ensure that no one is openly expressing any “negative” emotions – based on his definition, this includes sadness, frustration, and anger. His theory behind this was that any of these emotions is a sign that his employees are distracted from their work. And this is why I was kicked out of Dada’s house and sent back here just a few hours ago.
“Kristy, I would never take you there, you’re better off here with me.” I say smiling gently, holding her hand.
“Aynur dear, that Newtobot was the worst thing to happen in my 95 years here. What about Jay and Jasmine? I thought they lived with Dada?”
“Jay and Jasmine left Dada years ago to work for Mr. Rushford. Dada was the one who convinced them to leave him and work for what he calls the ‘bigger cause’. Now it’s just Dada and his Newtobot alone in that huge mansion.”
As I guide Kristy to bed, she shakes her head and replies, “Poor thing, I can’t even imagine – how does Dada stay sane? I would go crazy being taken care of by a robot… who would I tell all my stories to? I would just go on for hours and it would just stare at me with its huge metal eyes.”
I pull the green knit blanket over her and walk towards the door. “I know, sometimes I feel like I should go back to live with Dada, but then I remember that the Newtobots would not let me take care of him anyways. But, don’t worry Kristy, I would never leave you with one of those useless pieces of junk.”
I shut off the lights and begin closing the door.
“Aynur dear, I’m so glad to have you as my caretaker. Goodnight.”
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Part III: Dada
Aynur places my afternoon medications in my hand.
“Thank you beta.”
I stumble towards the granite countertop.
The woman rushes behind me and supports my back with her hand.
Who is she?
I look down and see round blue capsules in my hand.
What are these?
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Part IV: Aynur
“Dada, uhh…aiya…uhhh…walking stick che.”
Dada, here is your walking stick.
Dada’s head turns in response to my half-English, half-Gujarati in slow motion. While I rarely regret my decision to stay in the Old World, my Gujarati skills have undoubtedly deteriorated from no longer living with my family.
“Walking sticks are for old people,” he instantly replies in Gujarati, as he grabs onto the edge of the stone countertop, moving along its corners and guiding himself one step at a time.
I glance around to check for any sight of the Newtobots. As long as they aren’t here, I can finally take care of Dada, at least for a few minutes. Holding his fragile hand in mine and scrambling to push any furniture out of his path, I empty a purple medicine dispenser labelled “Tuesday” with 9 pills of assorted shapes, colors, and sizes.
“Dada, here is your medicine for today,” I explain, as I drop a small, gel-filled tablet into his shaky hand.
“Medicine is for old people.”
Dada drops the tablet onto the floor and continues to stumble towards the dining table. Pushing the chair out from the table, I hold Dada’s thin, weak arms firmly until he is properly seated and push in his chair. I carry over his afternoon chai in a pale blue teacup, along with almond biscuits in a glass bowl, and place them in front of him on a placemat. Guiding his hand over to the teacup, I navigate the cup slowly towards his mouth.
“Ah Ah! Ai boyj garam che! Ai boyj garam che!”
Dada begins frantically yelling as the tea burns him, dropping the teacup and shattering the china across the tiles. As his hands begin shaking, I turn around in frustration to run over to the paper towel roll sitting in the corner of the kitchen. Just a few steps in, I feel a sharp pain in my foot and glance down – a steady stream of blood is gushing from the shard of glass piercing the bottom of my foot.
I limp back over to Dada, gently lifting his chin and patting dry the streams of chai from his mouth.
As he looks up into my eyes, a switch immediately goes off.
“Who are you? Who are you? Get out of here!” Dada repeats over and over, rigidly glancing around in panic.
Shocked, I stand there trembling.
“Dada, it’s me Aynur, your daughter.”
Dada blankly pauses for about a minute.
In a matter of seconds, I am met with more frantic yelling and the Newtobot rolls into the living room.
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References
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Wachsmuth, Ipke. “Robots Like Me: Challenges and Ethical Issues in Aged Care.” Frontiers in psychology vol. 9 432. 3 Apr. 2018, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00432
Image
https://www.businessinsider.com/india-coronavirus-robot-uses-thermal-camera-to-take-temperature-2020-5