I thought of this too when I heard about it: > In ten or twenty years Minneapolis-Honeywell, which makes many thermostats today, may try to sell you a really f

I thought of this too when I heard about it: > In ten or twenty years Minneapolis-Honeywell, which makes many thermostats today, may try to sell you a really fancy home temperature control system. It will know the preferences of temperature and humidity of each member of the family and can detect who is in the room. When several are in the room it makes what it considers a compromise adjustment taking account who has most recently had to suffer having the room climate different from what he prefers. Perhaps Honeywell discovers that these compromises should be modified according to a social rank formula devised by its psychologists and determined by patterns of speech loudness. The brochure describing how the thing works is rather lengthy and the real dope is in a rather technical appendix in small print. http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/little/little.html http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/little/little.html (1983)