Wired to Care

Nine We Are Them and They Are Us

When companies create an empathic connection to the rest of the world, a funny thing starts to happen. The line between outside and in, between producer and consumer, begins to blur.

Betsey Farber loved to cook. She and her husband, Sam, would spend hours in the kitchen, transforming fresh ingredients into mouth-watering feasts. But as she grew older, cooking became harder and harder. Betsey developed a mild case of arthritis in her wrists. Though the joint pain wasn't severe, it still hurt whenever she grasped a knife or needed to hold down a cucumber for chopping. Betsey could still cook, but it wasn't as pleasant anymore.

One day in 1988, the pain became so bad that Betsey wondered if she might have ...