If the elderly are mostly recog­nised and val­ued for their accu­mu­lated knowl­edge and skills (a con­tentious assump­tion in itself, granted), then tech­no­log­i­cal advances are grad­u­ally mak­ing the older gen­er­a­tions redun­dant, sug­gests Philip Greenspun.

Let’s start by con­sid­er­ing fac­tual knowl­edge. An old per­son will know more than a young per­son, but can any per­son, young or old, know as much as Google and Wikipedia? Why would a young per­son ask an elder the answer to a fact ques­tion that can be solved author­i­ta­tively in 10 sec­onds with a Web search?

How about skills? Want help ori­ent­ing a rooftop tele­vi­sion aer­ial? Chang­ing the vac­uum tubes in your TV? Dial­ing up AOL? Using MS-DOS? Chang­ing the rib­bon on an IBM Selec­tric (height of 1961 tech­nol­ogy)? Tun­ing up a car that lacks elec­tronic engine con­trols? Doing your taxes with­out con­sid­er­ing the Alter­na­tive Min­i­mum Tax and the tens of thou­sands of pages of rules that have been added since our senior cit­i­zen was start­ing his career? Didn’t think so.

The same tech­no­log­i­cal progress that enables our soci­ety to keep an ever-larger per­cent­age of old folks’ bod­ies going has simul­ta­ne­ously reduced the value of the minds within those bodies.

Sug­ges­tions for “main­tain­ing rel­e­vance and value in old age” are grate­fully being received on Philip’s post.