Health and social consequences in the quest for comfort, convenience and pleasure

As the holiday season approaches, we are bombarded with gift ideas in catalogues and advertisements. This year, as always, there are new models of home theatres and entertainment systems, computers, electronic games, power tools, toys and gadgets. Science and technology is helping us move towards ultimate comfort, convenience and pleasure. There are several new products that are quite thought provoking.

Imagine the convenience of turning on lamps and small appliances from up to 20 m away, even through walls, floors and doors. By using a remote control switch, you don't have to get up from your chair or go downstairs. A robotic floor vacuum unit with remote control cleans and sweeps automatically, even when you're asleep or out of the house! All you do is press a button and the unit goes to work. Guided by infrared sensors, it steers away from stairs and navigates around obstacles. When it has finished, it automatically docks to a home base to recharge. For the kitchen, innovation is a recipe for convenience. A user‐friendly electric wine‐bottle opener pops the cork in seconds. A microwave unit allows you to scan, cook and eat. Full power or half, 2 min or 3 min? Now you don't have to worry. This microwave will figure it out for you. Simply use the wand attached to the microwave to scan product Universal Product Codes to determine the cooking power and time.

Modern machines and ready meals have revolutionised our life styles. As a result, we are changing our physical activities and dietary patterns, as well as our social behaviours. At a birthday dinner I recently attended, adults and children were seated at their own tables. Whereas the adults were talking and joking at their tables, it was a totally different scenario with the children—no running around, no laughter. The children sat quietly, busily operating their own hand‐held computer games.

Just 50 years ago, cooking from scratch was an essential skill: how else could you feed a family? Nowadays, cooking has become an art and is no longer a necessity. Ready‐made foods are available at the grocery store. With cans that come with new easy‐pop tops and pre‐assembled food that comes in easy‐peel packages, which allow us to heat and eat from freezer to table in 3 min, ready‐to‐eat foods are attractive alternatives to cooking.

Although science and technology bring us comfort, convenience and pleasure, they also bring us diseases of comfort, such as those chronic diseases caused by obesity, physical inactivity and energy‐dense food,¹ and changes in social behaviours. Examples of these adverse consequences abound: people driving from one store to another right next door, consumers buying and eating mostly food that is either ready‐to‐eat or microwaveable, fewer families sitting down together to eat home‐cooked meals.

Of course, there is no turning back in history, in civilisation, and in science and technology. No one would choose to go back to the dark ages of hunting and gathering or the pioneer days of living off the land. However, the adverse health and social consequences of science and technology must be dealt with before it is too late.

Besides education and legislation,¹ the solution to the health and social problems of science and technology can be science and technology themselves. For example, should science and technology be required to add health and social considerations to their goals? In addition to the development of a new product, should research and development be encouraged to invest at least an equal amount, if not more, in researching and minimising the adverse health and social effects? These and other questions must be dealt with in our continued quest for comfort, convenience and pleasure.