Friday, July 17, 2015

Castle No More

From 1965: the house of the future (The Guardian)
Stanford experts forecast the features that our homes will have in 2050. Particularly amusing (or alarming) are predictions by the Design Institute's Banny Banerjee [bold added]:
The house will have an identity, intelligence, memories, and perhaps even moods and opinions. The house will be meshed with a computing and systems infrastructure, with many sensors and feedback interfaces. There will be more localized storage of water and more renewable energy generated on-site.

People will interact with their homes in different ways—for example, doors will let you in or not based on who you are, not on any physical key, and [the house] will tell you that you're forgetting your passport when you're off to the airport (if a passport is not an implant by then).

Unless you force it into a dumb mode, your home will play a more active role in maintaining your health, social life and sleep. It will remind you of things you need to do, pay your bills, make sure you drink enough water, analyze your pee, align people's calendars and invite people on your behalf.
Today we worry about protecting our privacy, even in our own homes. Tomorrow I and maybe you too, dear reader, will be trying to keep private information from our homes.

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