The Virtue of a Simple On-Off Switch — and Manual Toothbrushes
“Homes already have interfaces that are remarkably robust. Imagine, for example, how revolutionary the light switch would seem if until now we’d all been forced to control our lights through our smartphones.”
–“Why I’m Not in a Hurry For a ‘Smart Home'”; The Wall Street Journal (June 22, 2014).
I got a chuckle reading the Journal’s take on how ever-more technology in the home can add up to, well, less:
“If you were hoping for a robotic butler, a fully automated kitchen, or anything that couldn’t be accomplished with a minimum of effort in a non-smart home, you’ll have to return to the worlds of science fiction.”
—Wall Street Journal
It recalls a Family Circus cartoon showing a kid, on a visit to his Grandparents, discovering a non-electric toothbrush (what we used to call “manual”) in the bathroom and exclaiming, “Mom! Dad! Look! A toothbrush you don’t have to plug in!”
On the other hand, I still remember a well-known tech guru confidently dismissing the Internet in the mid-’90’s as “CB radios with typing.”
See also, “Google Buys Nest Labs for $3.2 Billion”; “The Downside of Going Paperless“; and “Steve Jobs’ Next Invention.”