It was possible, just a geeky niche because folks had to do pretty much everything themselves. X10 ruled the day for remote control, and that was straight forwa

It was possible, just a geeky niche because folks had to do pretty much everything themselves. X10 ruled the day for remote control, and that was straight forward. Everything was costly, so there was that factor. There was a great story in one of the computer mags of the day (Kilobaud, perhaps). Mid-80s, pre-PC. A fellow had a system (S-100 box I think) that had sensors, speech, and voice recognition. He could "Hey Siri, start a timer" type of commands. Alas, the system was imperfect, as they all were. One day, the owner was doing something with solvents and changing clothes in the garage when the fumes set off the fire detector. Despite his pleas to cancel, the system proceeded to not just inform the fire department, but set off an alarm, and open the garage door (part of his fire escape plan) to reveal to his neighbors a shouting, half naked man, dancing in their garage. Anyone who has seen "Electric Dreams" knows the downsides of home automation.