I dunno. I can and do do almost all of those things(minus maybe changing songs while wrestling with my kids, but I don't have kids) without a smart speaker and none of them are very difficult to do in the first place. For instance, when I want to buy something, I open an app on my phone. If I want to turn on a light, I walk to the light switch, and then I turn it on. I'm not trying to be facetious, I really don't see much of a benefit to having an alexa or similar device. I think smart speakers are going to have to do a whole lot more than I can currently imagine in order for me to adopt them.

Sure, you can do all those things, but I can still do them when you can't. Like when your hands are holding something, or dirty because you are washing dishes, or turning on the lights while your hands are full.

And the benefit is, I don't have to remember my phone. It can be sitting wherever, and I can still do these things.

> I really don't see much of a benefit to having an alexa or similar device.

So? I like having a remote car starter, too, despite being able to walk out and start the car manually.

I like GrubHub, even though I could call up and order from places on the phone.

I enjoy streaming video over DVRing shows.

I value convenience. Maybe you value other things. That's fine.

So then...

> I dunno.

What? What don't you know?

>If I want to turn on a light, I walk to the light switch, and then I turn it on

Compare this to: "What's the point of remotes? If I want to change the station, I get up and walk to the TV". Once you get used to being able to turn lights off by voice, you get lazy and happy.

And it's not just one light, BTW. Suppose when I go to sleep, I want all lights except the porch lights off. I don't have to walk around the whole house[1] switching them off, when instead I can just say "Sleep mode lights" or something equivalent.

[1] You know, the 3000 sq ft houses people outside of SV have.

I typically turn a light on once when i enter the room and when I leave the room- I do the same thing for my exterior lights on the outside of my house. Once every couple of months or so I or my wife will have to get up and go shut a light off in the living room when we go to bed that we forgot to turn off. People often change the channel multiple times in on sitting...which you really don't do with lights. I guess maybe having children complicates this.

Also, maybe I'm the outlier here your proposed situation is particularly accurate (and funny) to me- a couple of years ago a dog chewed up our TV remote and I have still yet to replace it. I get up and physically go to the TV to turn the volume up or down or to turn it on/off.

I'm really not trying to sound like a luddite, I just really don't care enough to adopt this stuff, at least not for the foreseeable future...I don't see the purpose of life as an endless march towards total comfort and ease, though. I will concede that these devices and smart home technology makes life much easier for those with disabilities, and I ultimately support it's development for this reason alone.

Well, no one is saying this is definitely a gain for every person. As an example, I refused to use a smartphone until 2012, and even after that, I refused to use cell phones for non-emergency calls until, well, even now. I still have a conventional phone at home, and unless I'm coordinating something, I don't answer my cell phone and simply call people back when I get home.

But on the flip side, it's a poor assumption that if someone is not turning off the lights manually, that the primary goal is comfort or ease. I used to think manually doing all chores was a virtue in itself - I had a dishwasher in my apartment for years before I started using it. I no longer think that way. Now for me, if I can eliminate mundane stuff like dishes, lights, etc - it is because I want to spend the time on more quality stuff.

As an example, too many older people say they wish they had just paid the money to repair stuff in the house, rather than spending the time to repair it themselves. They took pride in their work, on top of also saving money. But later in life, they wished they had used that time better.

I definitely agree with some of what you're saying- I guess my point would be that I don't think that these smart speakers are anywhere near the innovation that the smart phone was...and I think that people who aren't early adopters have a valid place in the consumer space because we are the majority and therefor we are growth. If things like Alexa want to be as ubiquitous as a smartphone then I think they're going to have to become a lot more novel.