I can never quite tell if these things are misunderstanding, myopia, or willful ignorance: I certainly try never to underestimate the power of the former two; but the number of tech-startup ‘solutions’ built on the “people with different, typically worse, options than me are doing suboptimal things, this situation requires a toy product and/or app that would encourage a moron of my options and background into doing the right thing(with pivot to ‘the profitable thing for us’ once the VC cash gets scarce and the complete absence of business model shows)” makes me wonder.
If you basically like building widgets and tech demos, I can understand the appeal of not death matching with ugly structural problems (there doesn’t appear to be an app for “why does adding corn syrup make a beverage cheaper in low end outlets?”; but if that is the scope of your ambitions; FFS stop talking like you are saving the world…
It will isn’t a good option, especially if it’s standard consumer grade hardware with “move fast and break things” grade software; but there are cases where gadgets are already considered pretty good (an insulin pump, say, isn’t exactly a set-and-forget pancreas replacement; but comparisons to periodic manual testing and administration are more favorable); and it’s the unpleasant truth that the caretaker you can afford has featured in some very ugly tales of neglect and abuse(not ‘you’ in the personal sense, just in case that isn’t clear, generic, population level ‘you’).
One wouldn’t want to advocate leaving the old and weak to the mercy of IoT just to save money; but when you can’t afford good solutions, you start buying fish antibiotics on the internet(and, once this thing has been dragged in and forced to actually adhere to medical device standards, it could probably improve the accuracy and repeatability with which a caretaker, especially a distracted, tired, overworked, or emotionally-fragile-because-their-family-member-is-slowly-succumbing-to-brutal-degenerative-disease, one can make sure that protocol has been followed.)
Probably not much better than a basic printed checklist could; but checklists have a pretty decent record for reducing routine error even among high skill users…
I would like to see those statistics. All I know is that we’ve all been told for years that we’re one gulp away from dying of thirst at any given moment. I don’t think people in general are chronically dehydrated.
I would have liked something like this when I was a kid. (Or more attentive parents.) I remember a few summer evenings where I played too much and drank too little. I had terrible headaches that brought me to tears. I’m not sure this is the solution, obviously. But I’ve remembered those headaches all my life.
