Devices everywhere

[jnicho02]

I have heard that we will have 'devices everywhere', that my washing machine will have a level of intelligence.... Or will my washing machine stay like it is - a large metal box weighted down by a concrete block with a rotating drum that fills with water and rotates.<br>
<br>
Somebody please tell me why I would want an intelligent washing machine (and I'll buy one!).

 

[Lehtoant]

I want this:<br>
<br>
No loading/unloading: just drop the glass on a tray and machine takes it inside and puts in place. The machine starts automatically when full. And when you unload just lift the whole rack to your cupboard.<br>
<br>
Or instant machine that rotates your dishes through washing line (in one minute) into the dryer.<br>
<br>
Maybe something like this is already available but not in my kitchen.<br>
<br>
Al

 

[DougP]

jnicho02<br>
Well maybe in the future when all of your appliances are connected to your houses &quot;Network&quot; it will keep track of maintenance. Which can create reports about usage and power consumption and tell you its more effiecint to wash clothes at nite or when ever.<br>
You could tell &quot;Rosie&quot; to do a load and she would know she can't cause your son or daughter left their clothes in there. Which she will reply &quot;Should I finish their load first You know that responsiblity thing your are trying to teach them&quot;<br>
<br>
Or let your own imagination fly jnicho02.<br>

 

[Lehtoant]

After re-reading the my previous message I have to admit that after all I don't wash clothes and dishes in the same machine :=) ...yet. <br>
<br>
In the Bluetooth project they said that all domestic appliances would be infrared-networked and managed with PC. But is the project going down, haven't heard lately?<br>
<br>
The general trends in development might be convenience and consumption as Doug illustrated (I disagree the teaching point, soap and washboard are more effective :]) Normally these are exclusive goals but there's the challenge for developers.<br>
<br>
And why is the machine still the same with drum and concrete block? My guess is little sexist: washing machines aren't the biggest interest of (dominating male) engineers (no flaming, just a sad guess). I have to admit that our machine is little strange to me...<br>
<br>
Al

 

[Zelandakh]

Five years sounds like a long time. It is not. Windows 95 was written in 1988. IPv6 is about 6 years old and is still not in use.<br>
<br>
Ten years from now, maybe some people will have &quot;networked&quot; houses. Appliances may have optional network control modules available so they can be controlled from your network. That in turn could be linked to the Internet permanently so you can switch the oven on at home via the Net.<br>
<br>
Some of the things demo'd now are useless ideas destined for the heap of life. Occasional parts of these will be used to create the new way. But only if the consumer votes with his wallet. You CAN make a difference. If it sucks, don't get it just because it's trendy.<br>
<br>
Remember the Sinclair C5?

 

[jnicho02]

Okay DougP, so maybe I sound a bit cynical. It is a devil's advocate type of question really.<br>
My point is: I love to dream, I love technology, but some things are going to be slow to change. As Lehtoant says, there just isn't really any drive to develop a 'better' washing machine (maybe one you could put clothes or dishes in Lehtoant? ;}<br>
<br>
There is more drive however to improve handheld devices that salesmen take with them into shops which download all the relevant details from a central server before entering the shop, then upload the responses at the end of the visit.<br>
<br>
The whole 'devices everywhere' in the home thing sounds like a 60's dream kitchen to me...

 

[DougP]

It the old adage the “Squeaky Wheel gets the Grease”<br>
Or “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”<br>
If the market is telling the Inventors that “Hand helds” are where it’s at then we will see major strides in that area.<br>
Smart Washing Machines are low on the list.<br>
<br>
Also Companies are going to make products that are profitable.<br>
<br>
Ben Franklin said it a long long time ago &quot;Believe a 1/4 of what you hear and 1/2 of what you see&quot;.<br>
<br>
Also if an appliance has a digital display of some kind on it. It already has a &quot;brain&quot;. Intel makes other &quot;Brains&quot; &quot;CPU'S&quot; besides the Pentium today. The i960 is one.<br>
Motorola too.<br>
<br>

 

[Lehtoant]

Real human necessities are very simple. Most of them are (and will be) made up for us. I think the golden decade of household necessities were at 1950's. Everyone needed all kinds of machines. <br>
<br>
Now we have hands full of chips and networks which were are trying to incorporate to these machines of the 50's. It's like furnishing a T-Ford with Airbag - I wouldn't feel any safer. Washing machine of the future has to re-designed with real intelligence. Maybe the output is something like a machine that recognizes what you put in (clothes, dishes, dentures, car etc. :]D)<br>
<br>
Al<br>
<br>

 

[JimHorton]

'Devices Everywhere'...<br>
It sounds like Microsoft again--answering questions that the market never asked, doing things just 'because we can', or 'because it's neat'. Remember when MS tried to come out with an add-on .dll to create 'rounded windows'? Why? Because some developer there was tinkering and thought it 'was neat' so they tried to put it out there and everyone yawned. I, for one, don't need a washing machine that's connected to the internet, or a toaster that thinks. Brainpower would be better spent elsewhere, in my opinion.<br>
Jim

 

[Aquilian]

How about a washing machine that sorts and washes clothing depending on the fabric. Adding just the right water temp and washing/softening solution. <br>
<br>
A toaster that know your preference in toast and when you want it. Also does baked bread, pastries etc.<br>
<br>
Pantries that maintain inventory including ordering and arranging deliver.<br>
<br>

 

[JimHorton]

Aquilian,<br>
I'm assuming you're joking, but if not, here's an example of why some of this isn't so palatable to me. Pringles potato chips. They taste fair, but they're all so...perfect. Just so boring, all the same. It reminds me of the soliloquy at the end of the movie Parenthood. I won't repeat it here, but the old lady basically says how life is so much more fun when there's uncertainty, ups & downs--the roler-coaster--as opposed to the (my adjectives) monotonous, computerized, predicatable, programmable, perfect boredom of the merry-go-round. <br>
<br>
I think that 'over-computerization' dehumanizes us. I want burnt toast every once in a while, and I don't mind running out of something in the pantry--maybe that would make me try something new--and find something different that I Iike--instead of having the same old thing, automatially ordered, inventoried, cooked to bland perfection, etc.<br>
--Jim

 

[Guest_imported]

I disagree. I guess it is a personal thing, but my life is already MUCH TOO disorganized, I crave order. I cannot seem to wash my own clothes without losing half of them (due to shrinkage, or too much bleach on my blue jeans... that sorta thing) and as far as coooking anything, with all I have to do everyday, just making toast seems like an almost insurmountable task. There is enough chaos in my life, thank you very much, and the above enhancements would make my life MUCH easier. Boring? No I don't think so. I think all of the above would be so much of a blessing, allowing me more time to do my work, or just to enjoy myself. <p>John Vogel<br><a href=mailto:johnvogel@homepage.com>johnvogel@homepage.com</a><br><a href=

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[calahans]

I agree with John. I hope that technology will get rid of the mundane from life - shoping, cooking, cleaning , WORKING.. if we don't have to do these we can (in theory) do more with our lives, more time for living not surviving.<br>
<br>
C

 

[JimHorton]

Well, I certainly agree that there's a place for 'computerization', I never said I want to go back to having a team of secretaries to file customer data, ie, these are the type of mundane, monotonous things the computer is made for--besides it's my livelyhood. But there are things where it has no place, in my opinion. Cooking--sure, production bakeries already benefit from some of these things, and I'm not railing against this where it makes sense--but I don't see burnt toast as chaos.<br>
<br>
I agree with those ISP adds (I think it's Prodigy) that depict the 'over computerized, internet slaves' as zombies squinting in the sun when coming outside after doing everything via computer. While you may feel that the opposite will be true if things are computerized--that people can be outside even more--I predict that will not be the case; you'll hear: &quot;Sorry, I can't come to the basketball game tonight, I have to reconfigure the autoexec.bat file on my toaster&quot; or &quot;I just got done turning away the semi-truck outside that wanted to drop off 60 pallets of Cling Peaches to my pantry--it seems my AutoGrocer 3.0 was incompatible with ver. 2.0, and it moved a decimal point a few spaces over&quot;... you get the picture.<br>
<br>
There are things where we just need the 'real thing'. Have you tried lying on the couch or in bed reading a good book on a laptop, or even one of those 'electronic books'? Or take, say, skiing. How about a computerized ski that carves the turns for you? Let's go further, how about you don't even have to leave home, just strap into a virtual reality ski program, a fan blows cold air on you, you see video of the mountain going by--a perfect run, every time! Now there's more time for other stuff, like, virtual baseball, etc. I prefer the real thing, imperfect as my skiing can be, a real book to read--dog-earred pages and all, etc.<br>
<br>
--Jim<br>

 

[Alt255]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... computers will never EVER improve the quality of our lives. As dreary as the prospect might sound, the responsibility for improvement rests on our own shoulders.<br>
Yeah, in 1990 Intel predicted that, within six years, the typical computer would be running at an astounding 200MHz. I was running what I thought to be a sizzling 25MHz on an 80386. The near future was incomprehensible! But I actually imagined a day when I could load Windows before I had a chance to drink a cup of coffee and take a shower.<br>
Boy, was I wrong.<br>
Yeah, my VCR has a million features I would never consider using. Yeah, my coffee maker has a built-in brain (but the coffee is still as dumb as a rock.) My microwave oven refuses to let me turn it on when the door is open (what a lifesaver!).<br>
On the other hand, I have an operating system on my computers that warns me not to shut down while I have active DOS apps, but lets me click on WIN.COM and press the DELETE key without interrupting with sage observations about my perfectly human stupidity (after all, It's just another MS-DOS app).<br>
<br>
Never trust your life or property to a machine, no matter how well advanced. Until machines have perfected a method of creating perfect machines, all machines will have a built-in liability, a deficiency they will never have a right to use to their advantage: the totally human knack for stupidity.<br>
<br>
Therein lies our only chance for future advance as a civilization. We must never rely on perfect order to create new technologies (it won't). We can't rely on today's (or tomarrow's) technology to give us an edge in this universe (it can't). We can only rely on Nature and trust in the notion that we are stupid today.... If we are stupid tomarrow we may be dead.<br>
<br>
Nature takes care of its own.<br>

 

[JimHorton]

And let's not forget the 'Productivity Paradox'. The computer has not done the work of ten people, as was so often said (it's help a great deal, to be sure), but it's largely a shift--division of labor. Sure, we don't have scads of clerical people filing all day--a database app does that--but back we've got scads of programmers <br>
Jim

 

[Alt255]

Very true, Jim, and let us never forget the Firesign Theatre amendment to Murphy's law; &quot;You can't get there from here.&quot;<br>
I disagree with jvogel's lament about a lack of order. Personally, I believe we all crave more chaos in our lives (we can't live without it). I disagree with calahans's observation that elimination of the mundane would free us to perform more creative tasks (we can't explore unknown universes without a base, firmly rooted in the mundane).<br>
I agree with DougP's note about the &quot;Mother of Invention&quot;.<br>
We won't create viable solutions until we absolutely have to have them (or a few years after the fact - witness Microsoft).<br>
When I was six years old I believed I possesed a magic stick that could take me anywhere I wanted to go.<br>
Was I wrong? (It brought me here.)<br>
Was I right? (The future doesn't match my expectations.)<br>
<br>

 

[calahans]

Alt255 - I find it difficult to extra your arguement from all the romantic speak. Lets spin back 200 years. I would not be sitting here in my warm office playing about on the internet when I should be working. I would most probably toiling away in some form of soul braking manual labour. My parents would be dead years, I could at best expect to keep my head above water. I could not expect to go on 2 holidays a year.....the list goes on.<br>
<br>
I have now a new set of worries, but they are not just about surviving anymore they are about living. I realise that alot of this is due to education, but education in turn is spawned by communication facilitated by technology (which in turn is spawned by education..)<br>
<br>
Let us never forget that technology is not just processor speed, it plays a part in all science - medicine being a prime example.<br>
<br>
I do agree that technology alone will not improve our live it does give us the CHOICE to improve it. Most of us take it.

 

[JimHorton]

calahans-<br>
The argument wasn't that 'technology' won't improve our lives, it was 'computers', and alone, machines can't. It's all relative: In 1965, the most powerful computers were worth many millions of dollars. If, back then, people were told that a person had a computer 10 times more powerful than that, and they could carry it around with them in a briefcase, people might think this person would be the king of the world--he must be the richest man, the most powerful, etc, etc. But today that computer, more powerful than multi-million dollar room-sized machines, is, for instance, in the basement of some pervert preying on children, or used by some slacker to IM his friends all day instead of working, or, it could be used by a scientist to come up with the molecular structure of a compound that cures cancer. It's people, not machines, that make life better or worse, with the tools available at the time.<br>
--Jim

 

[calahans]

Hi Jim - In fact the arguement (the original one) was to do with the technological evolution of devices. The original post was about smart washing machines not computer speed. <br>
<br>
Again I agree with your sentinment that it is people themselves, whom make their lives better but, technology can facilitate that choice (in the main).