Tomorrow’s world

The so-called ‘iPad’ promises plenty for the pensioners of the future – but is it more a pipedream than a panacea for loneliness?

If the Life Trust Foundation is to be believed, the granny flat of tomorrow will be an Aladdin’s cave of webcams, wall-to-wall plasma TVs and intelligent appliances.

This will help tackle loneliness and allow grandparents to ‘virtually’ baby-sit their grandchildren from the comfort of their plugged-in palace. Combine this with email, web-chat and social networking, and the pensioners of the future will never need to leave home to stay connected.

Sensors underneath cookers and baths will be able to tell if they’ve been left on, making it a safe environment for people to live in. Only those with serious needs will require social care – and even then, care homes will be replaced by ‘boutique hotels’.

So, on paper the future looks good. But isn’t this just papering over the problem of loneliness? Viewing your grandchildren through a TV screen does not compensate for the real thing – unless they’re monsters fed on a diet of violent games and virtual experiences.

And then there are there is the problem of the technology itself.

If the doom-mongers are to be believed, the Internet will come crashing down within 10 years because of the public’s hunger for downloads, Internet TV and content streaming.

Although that’s the worst case scenario, how will a 73-year-old – a little unsteady and living miles from the family – cope in the digital age when the Internet decides to serve its last Google search? Given the dependence on technology, it could be a disaster as people are forced to go out and do things themselves – possibly for the first time in generations.

Despite this, the granny-flat of the future offers plenty of opportunities for isolated and lonely individuals – especially if it is done correctly.

And you’d hope, with all that expensive kit inside, it would have an ingenious way of alerting you to the bogus salespeople who come knocking…