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"Jeremy Blum's home-automation system, which he calls Jarvis, can control lights, curtains and music and can answer questions about anything using a phone, voic

"Jeremy Blum's home-automation system, which he calls Jarvis, can control lights, curtains and music and can answer questions about anything using a phone, voice commands or this command center." Implementations like this kind of scare me. It is certainly cool to be 'able' to automate these things, but should we? Are we going to use technology to make our lives lazier, or better? No, they aren't mutually-exclusive, but I can't help but think that making it so you don't have to leave your couch in order to turn off the lights is a movement toward a worse lifestyle. Your health has a much larger contribution to your standard of living than convenience, and to me, this seems like trading off one for the other (in a subtle way). However, maybe I will eventually be convinced of the net benefits. Am I approaching this wrong?

i_cant_speel 11y ago
People can still choose to get enough exercise to be healthy even with all these convenient options. When I go to the gym in the morning, I'm exhausted and I would gladly choose not to get up to turn off the lights if I didn't have to. This doesn't take away people's option to live a healthy lifestyle and I don't see this as a valid reason to be against automation.
i_cant_speel 11y ago
People can still choose to get enough exercise to be healthy even with all these convenient options. When I go to the gym in the morning, I'm exhausted and I would gladly choose not to get up to turn off the lights if I didn't have to. This doesn't take away people's option to live a healthy lifestyle and I don't see this as a valid reason to be against automation.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
I don't see how this affect one's exercise regimen in any way. The use case probably isn't not getting off the couch to turn off the light, but voicing the command as you leave the room. In case of light, it's just (aiming at) more seamless experience. For some reason many people have this picture of technology bringing forth the Wall-E world. Consider however the following points: - People hate that vision with passion, which pretty much guarantees it won't come to pass any time soon. - "Normals" today are absolutely obsessed with fitness. Between spamming everyone with Endomondo updates on Facebook and testing a new toy-pedometer-watch, the primary use of Javris-like system in general population will probably be dieting and exercise. - Convenience doesn't have to lead to laziness. It can enable one to do more, faster and better. In a way, one could argue 200 years ago that the invention of electric washing machine will turn people lazy and fat. Ultimately, it will be up to us how much we eat and move. As our civilization goes forward, those things will be more and more disconnected from the limitations of reality. We can either learn to stay fit with computers, or give up on future entirely right now and go back to building things by hand. EDIT: I'll also share a short anecdote. 8 years ago, I built myself a voice-controlled system for changing music (Star Trek: TNG style, with computer voice reacting to commands). Basically a microphone soldered together from parts and hung on a wardrobe, + some Microsoft Speech API based software I wrote for off-line command recognition and control over a WinAMP instance. It wasn't that hard to get it working even though the music was on the loudspeakers, with quite high a volume setting. I could use it to change the music from my bed, or chair, or anywhere in the room. Did it made me exercise less? No. I actually did it to stop myself turning the computer screen on to change music while doing math exercises for maturity exam. It helped me to keep focused, because the task suddenly didn't require to do a context switch. Since that experience, it's how I see home automation - as a way to reduce context switching and to streamline some chores, not to rob you of meaningful activities.

i_cant_speel 11y ago

People can still choose to get enough exercise to be healthy even with all these convenient options. When I go to the gym in the morning, I'm exhausted and I would gladly choose not to get up to turn off the lights if I didn't have to. This doesn't take away people's option to live a healthy lifestyle and I don't see this as a valid reason to be against automation.

i_cant_speel 11y ago

TeMPOraL 11y ago

I don't see how this affect one's exercise regimen in any way. The use case probably isn't not getting off the couch to turn off the light, but voicing the command as you leave the room. In case of light, it's just (aiming at) more seamless experience. For some reason many people have this picture of technology bringing forth the Wall-E world. Consider however the following points: - People hate that vision with passion, which pretty much guarantees it won't come to pass any time soon. - "Normals" today are absolutely obsessed with fitness. Between spamming everyone with Endomondo updates on Facebook and testing a new toy-pedometer-watch, the primary use of Javris-like system in general population will probably be dieting and exercise. - Convenience doesn't have to lead to laziness. It can enable one to do more, faster and better. In a way, one could argue 200 years ago that the invention of electric washing machine will turn people lazy and fat. Ultimately, it will be up to us how much we eat and move. As our civilization goes forward, those things will be more and more disconnected from the limitations of reality. We can either learn to stay fit with computers, or give up on future entirely right now and go back to building things by hand. EDIT: I'll also share a short anecdote. 8 years ago, I built myself a voice-controlled system for changing music (Star Trek: TNG style, with computer voice reacting to commands). Basically a microphone soldered together from parts and hung on a wardrobe, + some Microsoft Speech API based software I wrote for off-line command recognition and control over a WinAMP instance. It wasn't that hard to get it working even though the music was on the loudspeakers, with quite high a volume setting. I could use it to change the music from my bed, or chair, or anywhere in the room. Did it made me exercise less? No. I actually did it to stop myself turning the computer screen on to change music while doing math exercises for maturity exam. It helped me to keep focused, because the task suddenly didn't require to do a context switch. Since that experience, it's how I see home automation - as a way to reduce context switching and to streamline some chores, not to rob you of meaningful activities.