It's not particularly useful to personify machines by giving them emotional states. The toasters in question aren't "needy", they are efficient. The real innovation here is giving an object the ability to take action independently. If I'm not actively toasting then no amount of analytics or notifications are going to get me to pay more attention to it. Just handle it for me, sell it, upgrade it, downgrade it, replace it with a juicer. Giving me information about my usage is creating more work. Taking action for me is doing me a favor.

This whole thing reminds me of Autonomous Corporations [1]. It's generally better when things take care of themselves. The Internet of Things combined with intelligent decision making could lead to societies where people have more time and get more benefit from everything around them. The first and most difficult step is to get our things communicating with each other. Then we can focus on getting them to act on our behalf instead of just sitting unused.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Autonomous_Corporation

If a car could arrive for me to drive it at that time and place that I need it (and depart to another client when I'm done), that could be perfectly efficient... but curiously this business model doesn't even nearly exist. There are too many other things going on.

Among my greatest shocks when I recently visited the states, were the inability to get beer delivered to my home, or easily find a cab just by walking to an intersection.

You can also often order delivery from grocery stores (Amazon Fresh and Instacart well known for this, but in my experience most grocery stores run their own delivery businesses that you can ask about.) If the grocery store is permitted to sell beer (they are not in some states, such as Pennsylvania) then they will typically happily deliver you beer if your total order is over a certain dollar amount (typically $50 or so).

Also, just about anywhere that beer is sold in the US, you can get a keg delivered to you. Of course most people don't want a keg unless they're having a party.

Would the comparison of Istanbul to New York City be more appropriate?

Which has more political pull, New York state or New York City? NYC isn't even confined within NY; the Chinese system of "cities of a certain level of significance are their own state-level entities" seems to make much more sense (to me) than the US model does.

Usually, I would have to call a cab or use Uber. That's fine, but it seems different from the "just need a car when I need a car" observation that invited my quip.

So Skynet was a delinquent? We're back to William Gibson's corporations as AI-led super organisms?

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyi...

Vacuum pumps instead of belly buttons are also incredibly useful, despite the being they're attached to.

Priorities people.

At least they aren't busy trying to build Proteus IV.

Saved me searching for the episode. Thinking out loud - maybe being neurotic is the true Turing test?

At least it will say something before just not working one morning.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-24707337

2014, in a universe slightly more awesome than ours:

Postman: "Hi, I'm here to collect those old memory modules you left in a box when upgrading and forgot about."

Me: "Wow, I did. How much did they sell themselves for?"

Postman: "$40 - just bump your phone here to get paid. Have a nice day."

I worked for a short time with an ex-EBay guy on an escrow service for sellers. You left your stuff with some guy with a storage unit. If it sold, they went to that guy, scanned a barcode they printed when they won the auction, I got paid and the escrow guy got paid.

Never got off the ground. My partner thought it too complex. BUt I kind of liked the idea.

Though I'm not sure how the shipping plays into that.

How to get rid of old stuff, sell it for more, and use Amazon as cheap storage

http://benguild.com/2013/10/20/store-sell-old-stuff-with-ama...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6587539

edit: and of course, Red Dwarf. How could I have forgotten about the toaster in that show? :)

When can I buy an automatic sliding door that finds it a pleasure to open for me?

Doors manufactured by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation are programmed to love their simple lives; they love nothing more than to open and close for passing users, and thank them profusely for so emphatically validating their existence. Most characters in the series grow to loathe the doors, particularly Marvin (and he was the first to explain about the doors' "cheerful and sunny dispositions").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation#...

From amazon review:

Ubik (1969) offers such deadpan farce as a moneyless character's attack on the robot apartment door that demands a five-cent toll:

    "I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.
    Joe Chip said, "I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it."

It makes an interesting replacement for the warranty in the item contract. Pay the toll, and the item is kept constantly serviced. The protagonist's attack on the door also makes sense since it is considered a breach of contract.

I had a vacuum here somewhere..... Where is it?

I'd be happy to buy one and see what happens. I think I've been in line for 6 months or so, actually, since Usman Haque told me about the thing.

[1]: http://caleblarsen.com/a-tool-to-deceive-and-slaughter/

[2]: http://www.atooltodeceiveandslaughter.com/

We'll put a social aspect in there too. If you sign up with a friend, your pet will start asking for food from your friend if you don't exercise enough (to your embarrassment).

Except maybe if they are physical products. Having a thing or a person that reminds me of my chores is probably easier on me than a non-local notification system that makes my whole e-mail experience unpleasant, or social media experience, or even spoils my whole phone.

"Get off your fucking fatass, you fucking fatty! You call that tub of shit a body? The scale tells me you gained four fucking pounds this week!"

So many of these design-art products are never actually made, which to me is ignoring the entire 'craft' side of the profession--the point of design is to make things actually exist.

1. Something must be done 2. X is something 3. Let's do X

You'll just make it worse.

If this is true, will we see refrigerators/vacuums/toasters/etc with Apple/Google/Amazon logos on them? Imagine a refrigerator that you could check the inventory of from an app. A toaster that sends you a push notification when its finished. I'd have to imagine while they're not necessary today, 100 years from now they will be the norm. So whos logo will be on them?

Maybe people who would like this aspect of interaction with products, but for me the prospect of being ditched by a toaster is just not the type of motivation I feel needs filling in my life.

I am paranoid enough to disconnect regular toaster from plug when not used. This 'intelligent' toaster would get lobotomy. I do not want some hacker to burn down my house.

Where can I apply to become a host for a toaster in need?

When your sex doll breaks up with you you know you have some real growing to do as a person.

(A sexbot wouldn't be an inanimate all the time, but could become one in a power down mode.)