Healthy Technology
Many times have I thought that I should have been born into an Amish family. I love the idea of living without electricity, cars and all the modern conveniences that seem to cause more harm to the environment and financial drain to people than anything. Of course, I can’t ignore the irony that I’m sitting here at my computer writing a blog post for the Internet. And I recently decided that washing clothes by hand is not how I want to spend one second of my time.
More importantly, I appreciate modern technology for all the ways it helps people whose health has been compromised in some way. Following are three such examples.
1. Vehicles for disabled people.
When I was in college, I took a class that required me to take a jaunt around the campus in a wheelchair. It was not fun, and gave me a distinct appreciation for the pains wheelchair-bound people go through just to accomplish everyday tasks.
With the invention of modified vans for handicapped people and to accommodate the disabled passenger (or driver, as it may be), families have experienced much greater freedom of mobility that they had before these vehicles were an option.
2. Oxygen machines.
My next door neighbor, a sixty-something senior who is as sweet as can be, would be dead without one. Even though she quit smoking years ago, her lung function continued to degenerate so that now she has to be tube-fed oxygen.
3. Infant incubators.
In a perfect world, where the food gave us all the nutrition we needed and no toxins existed, all babies would be born in perfect health. But in this imperfect world, some babies just don’t develop quite right or fully in the womb. Incubators have saved many a baby’s life since they arrived on the hospital scene, and therefore saved many a couple considerable grief.
Of course, I would prefer that such machinery be run on alternate fuels. I would prefer even more that my Ideal World where electricity is not necessary, everyone treats their body well, and everyone looks after each other, existed. But since it doesn’t, I choose to be grateful for the innovations that caring people have created to make up for our imperfections and frailty.
