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I agree with you, and I see that you get the normal responses I also get when I bring these things up (Just remember next time! Make a list! Buy two times as mu

I agree with you, and I see that you get the normal responses I also get when I bring these things up (Just remember next time! Make a list! Buy two times as much then just remember you are running low!). But when there is a technology that can make things better for us, allowing us to have to remember less and do less, why not? I buy a specific brand of cat litter, laundry detergent, paper towels, and toilet paper. And all of them I often forget I'm low on until it's too late, and I need to run to the store for a single thing. You can give me all the "solutions" in the world and i've probably tried them, this has happened my whole life. But then a technology comes along and takes care of this for me, and people are upset that it exists!? Yeah, the retailer the automation buys from could jack up the prices, if they do that I'll stop using it. Yeah, it could end up costing me slightly more for the convenience, i'm okay with that. Yeah, there are other solutions that work well for other people, they don't for me. And besides, there are tons of other uses for this kind of thing. The software doesn't need to automatically order it if you don't want to, it could just make a list for you if you'd prefer.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
Well, you can think of the "buffer method" (initially buy 2 units of an item, always add 1 unit to shopping list the moment you fetch the backup one) as a life hack, a piece of technology that's really awesome because it doesn't require anything than just a very small shift in your habits. That said, I think people - myself included - complain about this example usage because of all the uses one can come up in 30 seconds, this one is the least generally useful, and most ridiculous one, and this is the one that the authors decided to run their story with. For me, frankly, it's a bit pathetic. It strongly reminds me of another example - BLE beacons. There are plenty of useful applications that are also obvious when you understand what it is, but what was that the companies (I won't name a particularly well-known brand from my area[0]) decided to run with? Pushing ads into peoples' phones when they're shopping. It's as if people are purposefully trying to not use technology for good, and instead focus on the worst parts of our culture - greed, consumerism and exploiting others. -- [0] - There is also another, lesser-known BLE beacon brand in my area, which started their copy with industrial and medical uses. Well, after the success of the retail-oriented brand, they too decided to go with retail instead.
- Klathmon 9y ago
  Maybe to you, but to me this is probably my favorite usage of this technology that I can easily come up with. In other words the way it will have the best impact on my day-to-day life (hell, if it stops the "run to the store for detergent" drives, it'll probably be better for the environment as well). If this ever gets to the point where I can buy filament for it and print stuff myself, the first thing I'll be doing with it is hacking something together to order stuff as it runs out. Just look at it from my perspective. To me it's like people saying they can use BLE for medical and industrial purposes, and everyone is shouting about how useless and anti-consumer it is...

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Well, you can think of the "buffer method" (initially buy 2 units of an item, always add 1 unit to shopping list the moment you fetch the backup one) as a life hack, a piece of technology that's really awesome because it doesn't require anything than just a very small shift in your habits. That said, I think people - myself included - complain about this example usage because of all the uses one can come up in 30 seconds, this one is the least generally useful, and most ridiculous one, and this is the one that the authors decided to run their story with. For me, frankly, it's a bit pathetic. It strongly reminds me of another example - BLE beacons. There are plenty of useful applications that are also obvious when you understand what it is, but what was that the companies (I won't name a particularly well-known brand from my area[0]) decided to run with? Pushing ads into peoples' phones when they're shopping. It's as if people are purposefully trying to not use technology for good, and instead focus on the worst parts of our culture - greed, consumerism and exploiting others. -- [0] - There is also another, lesser-known BLE beacon brand in my area, which started their copy with industrial and medical uses. Well, after the success of the retail-oriented brand, they too decided to go with retail instead.

Klathmon 9y ago
Maybe to you, but to me this is probably my favorite usage of this technology that I can easily come up with. In other words the way it will have the best impact on my day-to-day life (hell, if it stops the "run to the store for detergent" drives, it'll probably be better for the environment as well). If this ever gets to the point where I can buy filament for it and print stuff myself, the first thing I'll be doing with it is hacking something together to order stuff as it runs out. Just look at it from my perspective. To me it's like people saying they can use BLE for medical and industrial purposes, and everyone is shouting about how useless and anti-consumer it is...