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In Praise of Dumb Tech
Everything does not need to be smart
The world of design has produced some life-changing inventions across a plethora of industries and sectors, with our lives being improved in previously unimaginable ways. At the same time, some companies continue to make pointless iterations and updates to existing products in the hope of designing the next big thing — whether it makes sense or not. For a while now, the current trend has been to make everything “smart.”
And I mean everything. If an object exists, you can bet your life someone is attempting to make it smarter. While some companies get this fusion of object and internet connectivity right and produce incredible results, the trend also leads to a whole host of pointless and expensive gadgets that might be worse than their normal alternatives.
Imagine the scenario. You arrive at your front door, about to put your code into your smart lock when you realize the door is already open. Strange. It then dawns upon you that your lock has been hacked, and your house ransacked. If you’re one of the luckier ones, the technology fastened to your door may have only given your Wi-Fi password away, or locked you out entirely. Do locksmiths know how to unlock smart locks?
After you’re finally able to get into your house, you decide to make yourself a snack with your Revolution R180, heralded as “the world’s first 2-slice, high-speed smart toaster.” This gadget saves you all the hassle of using dials by letting you mash your crumby fingers into a touch screen while saving you the trouble of lowering the toast with its auto lowering and lifting mechanism. It comes at a completely reasonable $300. Sweet relief. How did we survive without this?
Like a lot of people, you like a cup of tea with your toast. But the kettle is on the other side of the kitchen, and you just sat down. If only there was a solution… Enter the smart kettle, created by companies who believe that despite the fact that humans have been boiling water for thousands of years, internet connectivity can make it easier. Its biggest selling point? You can boil water from anywhere. Your life will never be the same after you’ve boiled your kettle from the living room.
