Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, what would it be?

Re:Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, wha... by logn on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @02:39AM (#5523564)

Buying things for the home. I'd like to see an interconnected network of pneumatic tubes like banks have at the drive-thru. Connect every home and business with these tubes and integrate it with internet purchasing.

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Re:Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, wha... by brwr on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @10:50AM (#5525460)

This would definitely be an interesting development, but I think there are a number of concerns here.

First off, that would be a lot of tubes. This problem immediately screams a graphing problem with, at the very least, number_of_cities * average_number_of_homes_per_city nodes. Even with that many nodes, the systems would be terribly inefficient.

Secondly, consider that not all packages are the same size. In addition to have a standard-sized tube, we would also need a number of tubes to handle over-sized cargo and, since we can't realistically run one of these to every home, we would still have a use for the offices of UPS and FedEx.

Another thing that worries me are the implications on us humans. If we can have everything sent to our house without ever leaving, we would all become recluses and never go outside.

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Re:Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, wha... by junto on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @05:34AM (#5524096)

Wasn't there an entire town in the USA where they connected the refrigerators up to a automatic restocking system. Or have I imagined that?

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Re:Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, wha... by brwr on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @10:45AM (#5525426)

If you did imagine that, you have an awesome imagination! If not, please send some articles on the topic my way. I'd love to read more about it.

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