I take a contrarian view on this. Such advancements / toys / useless things are vitally important to forward progress. What this article fails to recognize is t

I take a contrarian view on this. Such advancements / toys / useless things are vitally important to forward progress. What this article fails to recognize is that innovation is often built on the current "pareto (efficient) frontier" ... that is, it is built around the universe of available devices/applications/protocols/technologies/useless-things ... rearranged and consumed in new and novel ways. While the final application might not be a smart oven, as it might indeed be a useless item, that final application could very well be an application that requires the availability of a smart oven from which to build on, or one whose innovation was triggered by the availability of a smart oven. In other words, a smart oven plays a role in innovation and society as a whole, and shouldn't be dissed.