As I read the article, I was most puzzled as to how people could possibly be afraid of such a trifle as loneliness.
The answer is in the buried-lead at the end:
>According to the Campaign To End Loneliness, loneliness has been found to speed up cognitive decline in older people, with one study concluding that it can increase your risk of developing clinical dementia by 64 per cent.
>Increasing the risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and stroke, as well as disability, loneliness has also been found to increase your risk of dying early by 26 per cent - that's as much as obesity and smoking.
> So this isn't just a social problem - it's a potential health crisis.
This results in the question: how can we re-engineer humanity so that our 22nd-century cousins' physical health isn't dependent on, well, dealing with people?
(On second thought, it maybe doesn't result in that question after all: because nobody alive today could actually benefit from such an effort.)
The answer is in the buried-lead at the end:
>According to the Campaign To End Loneliness, loneliness has been found to speed up cognitive decline in older people, with one study concluding that it can increase your risk of developing clinical dementia by 64 per cent.
>Increasing the risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and stroke, as well as disability, loneliness has also been found to increase your risk of dying early by 26 per cent - that's as much as obesity and smoking.
> So this isn't just a social problem - it's a potential health crisis.
This results in the question: how can we re-engineer humanity so that our 22nd-century cousins' physical health isn't dependent on, well, dealing with people?
(On second thought, it maybe doesn't result in that question after all: because nobody alive today could actually benefit from such an effort.)