Dash fits squarely into the current age of smart-home technology... It is not simply a matter of practical efficiency but of a proactive, preëmptive way of living, in which inefficiency is the worst kind of waste. The way we manage our chores is a measure of our worthiness. No one wants to live in a stupid home... And only a chump would ever run out of toilet paper.
But what if there is actual value in running out of things?
— the New Yorker
Amazon released their new Dash devices yesterday and many people thought it was an April Fool's joke, partly " the idea seemed to poke fun at Amazon’s omnipresence, making it visibly manifest with little plastic one-click shopping buttons adhered to surfaces all over your home." But the device, which would enable you to re-stock a certain product with the push of a little button, is real and coming. The video is below –– it's a bit unsettling.
In his New Yorker piece, Ian Crouch notes the imminent arrival of products that will be able to reorder supplies, ie. a washing machine that will sense when the detergent is low and order more. Crouch darkly imagines "a washing machine, haywire and alone in a basement somewhere, constantly reordering supplies for itself long after we’ve all been wiped off the Earth." He suggests that being bothered to have to stop may actually be important, in part in making us feel bad about the way we consume and the amount we waste.
Crouch's article seems to echo Rem Koolhaas' worries about "smart cities" and "intelligent architecture" in his recent article for Art Forum. In his op-ed, Koolhaas writes, "The digital is essentially beyond exhaustion—an endlessly upgrading and mutating integration of the city, its architecture, its constituent elements, and its bodies. If the digital is about to deliver us to a sensor culture, does that imply an endless reinforcement of routine—a system proud to deliver more of the same?"
Here on Archinect, the Koolhaas piece provoked a good deal of debate. Lightperson writes, "A programmed society, with driverless cars, eliminates the possibility for the serendipitous interaction or getting lost." A bit later, Miles Jaffe contends, "The issue isn't tech, it is the global corporate commodification of everything."
Thoughts on Amazon Dash?
6 Comments
Yes, thoughts - No one will need Architecture anymore.
Tell me that the second generation of this will not come with a voice telling you to order more.
Great just what the world needs a washing machine that nags you.
is there a Dash button that orders replacement batteries for Dash buttons? Or a button that orders replacement buttons? Perhaps an "I'm feeling lucky button?"
This reminds me of an old science fiction story about a society where it was you duty to consume vast amounts of various products. If you managed to do it you were eventually bumped up a class to where you required to consume somewhat less, and so on. At the top you could live a low-consumption lifestyle.
In the story, a guy enslaved to massive consumption and utterly unable to even come close to his quota, which of course brings a penalty of an even higher consumption requirement, starts using his robots to wear out his clothes and otherwise consume his allotment of stuff. As he quickly climbs the social hierarchy - due solely to the efficiency of this robots - he begins to worry that someone will find out his secret and becomes fraught with anxiety. When his secret is discovered, however, he is considered a hero for finding a way to massively increase consumption.
I can't remember who wrote it but it dates back to at least the 70's.
^ Found it.
"The Midas Plague", 1954 Fredrick Pohl.
Ray Bradbury had some neat ideas about automation and technologically dependent societies.
one of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhlU8rXgHc
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