In the past years, the race for the smartest home device has begun and especially during the past few months several companies presented their “ideal solutions” to meet the vision of a home that assists our daily life and even is meant to complete some of our tasks autonomously. Well, besides the fact that in the age of NSA and other “listeners”, placing a smart speaker right into my private home seems ridiculous to me, imagine, that “smart” device would have the character and brain of our so beloved “Homer Simpson” … what sort of daily mess could we expect? Personally, I’m a huge tech-fan and I love the idea that AI could take over some of the countless tasks that sometimes take up too much of our time – I just don’t believe today’s solutions are there yet. At the same time it is much more likely that those “solutions” have their own “hidden agenda” going on in the background. That agenda that already collects an enormous amount of personal data every day! Sure, someone has to kick off and start using these technologies, but this should happen without turning users into guinea pigs for a number of other purposes too! So for now, I’m comfortable with my “stupid apartment”, which has been built around 350 years ago right here in the heart of Switzerland and honestly: I’d prefer Homer Simpson to be my personal assistant shopping for some “Duff” whenever my fridge is empty, than having a plastic speaker, which is straightly connected to some of the biggest data-collectors of our history.
