[ExI] NYT: Happiness May Come With Age, Study Says

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of The Avantguardian
...
> Damien wrote:
> 
> > Barbara and I have
> > been idly musing for some years on the possibility of opening an 
> > optimal nursing home for elderly transhumanists...
> 
> ...Things such as nutritional 
> supplements, cutting-edge treatment options, morale/quality 
> of life programs, and a medical staff trained in prepping 
> patients for cryogenic suspension could all be offered... Stuart LaForge 

I have been thinking about this for years, decades actually.  I had a
mercifully short stint as a nursing home assistant when in college, only
because the place desperately needed able-bodied help and noooobody wanted
to work there, nobody.  

One of the big problems of the very sick elderly was in elimination of solid
waste.  In many cases, bowel control had failed, leading to honest to god
genuine misery for the elderly sufferer, the kind of misery which leads one
to cry out for merciful death.

Do let us draw the curtain of mercy on the incident that is burned into my
memory like a cattle brand on tender flesh.

I had a notion that we could build a device which would insert into the
rectum with a water-driven enclosed whirling blade which would frappe the
shit and allow it to be washed out painlessly.  If done properly I can
imagine a semi-permanently installed device with a water line about the
diameter of a small woman's thumb, with an in-body processing device perhaps
thrice that diameter, reducing discomfort to the rectal sphincter.  A device
of that size might be able to stay in place without excess discomfort to the
patient, certainly nothing in comparison to the procedure that must be
followed in the event of catastrophic constipation followed by the sometimes
fatal impacted colon.  Do take my word for it on this one, oy, as a
second-hand observer who never wishes to see that again ever.

I can imagine really good individualized virtual realities for the elderly.
The flat screen monitors like the one you are now using could be adapted
into a dome that would create a terrific VR environment.  This could be
controlled by the patients to be wildly entertaining methinks.  

If one could have really good entertainment for the immobile and some good
means of getting rid of the solids, those two advances would be an enormous
step forward.  I do hope Damien and Barbara, and perhaps others with
influence such as business-minded people like our own Stuart Avantguardian
LaForge manage to organize such an effort, and get the right people on it.
Plenty of geezers have piles of money with nothing left to spend it on,
other than really good end-game care.  I can imagine a high-end (spendy)
terminal and elder care facilities taking off like wildfire.

spike