Ouch weblog: individual blog entry
30 May 05, 12:00 AM - The future of disabled loos: revealed!
Right, enough of this weblog tittle-tattle. Let's get to the really important issue: toilets. Researchers at Vienna's Technical University in Austria have been working away in their labs day and night, and have just unveiled a new loo - a super-loo, a loo to beat all loos - intended for people with MS and other disabled folk. This toilet adjusts itself to the user's, um, 'dimensions' either via a smart card that is inserted upon entering the toilet, or using voice-recognition technology. So far, so Tomorrow's World.
But it's the headline for this story - in the technology section of CNN.com - that really gets me: 'Toilets with brains' for disabled.
Does that sound as scary to you as it does to me? I'm really not sure that I'd like to use a toilet with a brain. What if it malfunctioned? What if it started talking back? What if it rebelled, like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey? And lastly: am I worrying about this a little too much?
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At 12:00 AM on 31 May 2005, Bobster wrote:
Question: will Ouch be, er, road-testing this latest technological piece of whizzy gadgetry?
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At 12:00 AM on 02 Jun 2005, Steven Durham wrote:
If this loo has a brain will it be long befoe it has a nose and eyes? (the mind boggels)
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At 12:00 AM on 02 Jun 2005, Wheels of Ire wrote:
I have a bit of a problem with the language used in the headline. Why could it not be described a 'reveloutionary new Self-Adjusting Toilet' ? I am not particularly precious about things like this, but there would seem to be an underlying idea that the loo has 'brains', but the user doesn't. I do believe that the language used can betray some really lazy stereotyping. I should know; when I was able-bodied, I paid lip-service to rights for the disabled, gave some money and then, conscience appeased, didn't really give a flying fox.
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At 12:00 AM on 03 Jun 2005, Eliza wrote:
Dang, the automatic flushers that spray your parts if you dare move wrong are scary enough; I don't know if I want a toilet that tries to be even smarter than that. Still, I do appreciate the use of quotation marks around the "Toilets with Brains" in the headline; otherwise, it would have sounded like we disabled were going to get brains from toilets. And, really, mine might be getting smooshed by my hypoplastic posterior fossa and all, but I don't think I'd want a new one from a toilet, even a toilet with brains for us crips.
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At 12:00 AM on 06 Jun 2005, Phil wrote:
Well i have heard of some funny things, but a loo with a brain? I wonder if it will talk back to you. But there again i know some people who talk out their backsides!!
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At 12:00 AM on 06 Jun 2005, Susan wrote:
In response to your question of if you are worrying about this too much, the answer is YES!!! This is a minute step forward (although a fantastic leap for those who will need these facilities), I doubt that toilets will be running havoc through the streets of London. Well, not in our life time anyway.
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