CM: What about scalability? KS: It’s a challenge. Many investors
try to find that hundred or thousand times return in a short period, which really only ever happens with some sort of digital application because it is the only thing that scales that fast. The issue is that investors want returns to match this one model when they are in a completely different one.
CM: Professor Joe Coughlin, who di-
rects the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, calls “gerontopia” the future of aging. How would you de- scribe the ideal setting, especially tak- ing into consideration a senior living community? What do you envision as the backbone of the community from a technological standpoint? KS: My background in mechanical
engineering comes into play here, be- cause I think we are a long way from gerontopia visions. Why? Because it is hard to implement things that touch real people and exist in the real world. We have seen this explosion in
the digital world of applications, but things in the digital world are very
clean and relatively easy to design for. Things in the real world are dif- ficult and messy, so it will be a long, hard process to achieve some of these visions. That said, I really like them. I am a fan of something that Peter
Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal, has said about what he called the “definite” futures versus “indefinite” futures. These specific visions of the future tend to lead to engineers try- ing to create them. America has a long history of doing this really well. The 1962 World’s Fair included a vi- sion that General Motors put out about the interstate highway system and roads, which people respond- ed to and eventually built. Another prime example is U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s vision of reaching the moon in a decade. I think that the future will look
more human than technology looks today. We have these visions of the future that tend to have lots of ro- bots and machines, but my real hope is that when we get better at tech- nologies they will slide into the
background and we will focus on the interaction between people. As people get older, it becomes more about what they choose, who they talk with, how and with whom they socialize and what their purpose is— and that is what we have to build around. I hope technologies actually bring
people together. That’s the piece I find missing in our more tech-oriented so- ciety. Maybe we’ll look back at this pe- riod and say, “We had this great tech- nological buildout, but then we had to figure out how it actually worked with being a human.” FBC
Colin Milner is founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging®. A lead- ing authority on the health and well-being of the older adult, Milner has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of “the most innovative and influential minds” in the world on aging-related topics. The award-winning writer has more than 300 articles to his credit; he has also shared his perspectives with media outlets such as CNN, BBC, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. Contact him at
info@icaa.cc.
STOP ODOURS & MASKING
Unpleasant odours can ruin the experience for existing and prospective members. Rather than just masking odours with a fragrance, you can now eliminate them with
Natural Odour Eliminator BROAD SPECTRUM ODOUR ELIMINATION:
sweat and other bodily odours, washroom odours, must and mildew, smoke, chemical, etc. FREE SAMPLE KIT! E-mail
info@petrasoap.com with your name, company and address. Put “freshwave” in the subject line.
1-800-463-2516 •
INFO@PETRASOAP.COM •
WWW.PETRASOAP.COM Fall 2018 Fitness Business Canada 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
