Search
Joseph F. Coughlin
Director of the MIT AgeLab
Joseph F. Coughlin is director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab (http://agelab.mit.edu). His research explores how demographic change, technology and consumer behavior drive innovations in business and society. Coughlin teaches in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Sloan School's Advanced Management Program. He is author of the new book The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market (Public Affairs, 2017).
Read Less
It's extremely difficult for new technologies to also envision the ways we will relate to each other in the future.
Carter said he was "surprisingly at ease" when he received his diagnosis. Perhaps part of that serenity comes from the knowledge of the good works he has done in his life.
Place matters, and it may matter more in older age than at any other stage of life. Where we live shapes the contours of our daily experience, determining our access […]
The next wave of retirees will be more tech-savvy than ever.
Drones are all the buzz today. They make the news regularly appearing everywhere and often where they don’t belong — baseball stadiums, concert stages and even the White House lawn. Is […]
Technology and old age are not typically in the same sentence, let alone discussion. However, the recent White House Conference on Aging highlighted the multiple opportunities to use technology as a force multiplier not just to live longer, but to live (and care) better.
Who will care for you in old age? Given dramatically lower fertility rates and population aging, combined with the high cost of caregiving, the future of eldercare and senior housing may be in for a big change. Can you imagine a future where robots provide care to older adults? Whether you think it cool, or creepy, the future may begin on July 17th when the Henn-na Hotel in Japan opens with a mostly robotic staff — is senior housing next?
New technology will surely improve the lives of older adults. However, there is a secondary effect of today’s technological innovation — it raises our expectations for life tomorrow. Technology is teaching baby boomers and every generation that follows to expect more and better in older age.
The nation’s largest gathering of transportation thinkers, the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board, was just held in Washington, DC. A nascent topic, that was discussed more in the hallways, than […]
The Consumer Electronics Show is over, but the enduring story of how wearables will be a part of everyday life persists. Just a month ago was the Indiegogo campaign to […]
When IBM Chief Accessibility Officer Frances West sat down at a recent screening of “Gone Girl,” she immediately realized that something was wrong. In the opening credits, there were “names […]
Google’s self-driving car and the automobile industry’s related efforts are breathing life into the seven-plus decade dream of the automated highway, which was first introduced as a concept at the 1939 […]
Let me start by saying that I love this month’s Atlantic cover story, “The New Science of Old Age.” I’m not raising it up just to knock it down. The piece, […]
The word on the street is that Apple is set to announce a major foray into home automation next week at its annual developers conference. As noted by other analysts, […]
George Takei, AKA Mr. Sulu, beamed into the MIT AgeLab last week. Although Star Trek: The Original Series may be the source of his public prominence, he has long since translated […]
Recently, the New Republic published an alarming piece about the stifling ageism pervasive in Silicon Valley—especially the new Valley of startups, as distinguished from more venerable firms—which raised eyebrows all
The disruptive demographics of an aging society offers a growth opportunity for the senior housing industry. However, technology is also presenting new ways to enable older adults to stay in […]
The loudest and largest generation in history, the baby boomers, are older. Their numbers and needs will place unprecedented demands on aging services in a time of workforce shortages and […]
The number one retirement financial plan for the next generation of retirees is not simply saving or investing, but rather to work longer and through many of the years we […]
“I make hands,” the young man said nonchalantly. Standing in the middle of a crowd of robotics researchers and developers, he introduced himself. I must admit the phrase and the […]