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The midwit home

(dynomight.substack.com)
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wmsmith ◴[] No.37860529[source]
While I believe that HA is very cool and many vendors provide valuable solutions, we must consider what happens when we die.

This is just one anecdote, but I believe the problem is more pervasive.

I was called to an elderly lady's home to "un-haunt" the building. See, her husband had recently passed away; he done "all of the cool things" to make the home smart. Unfortunately too smart. The wife could not operate the devices in her own home.

She had the tenacity to handle living in a dark house. All the time; she just gave up on the lights -- she couldn't figure it out and lived like this for an entire year.

She finally called for help when lights started randomly turning on and off. She believed it was the spirit of her late husband, but after some diagnostics, we found some cross-channel noise from a home further down the block. Whenever this neighbor would come home, he would turn on his lights via his home automation. About 75% of the time, it would turn on our lady's lights too. In her bedroom. And the neighbor worked 3rd shift.

I spend the next two days removing all home automation devices and, as she put it, putting in "turn the light on and off again" switches.

When choosing technology -- any technology, it's important to consider the life of that device and the people impacted far in the future.

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anonporridge ◴[] No.37862295[source]
Reminds me of an old scifi short story I read years ago and can no longer find.

It outlined a future where everyone started automating elements of their messaging to each other. Simple things like automated "Happy Birthday" messages. Eventually, people started setting up auto "Thank you" replies to these messages. It only got more complex from there with increasingly elaborate conversations being automated between people.

Eventually, some calamity hits civilization and humans go extinct. But their technology is resilient and keeps running without them. The ghosts of a dead people continue talking to each other in perpetuity, long dead people cheerfully wishing each other "Happy Birthday" until the lights finally ran out.

Haunting story that I still think about from time to time. Would love it if anyone else recognizes the story and could credit it.

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1. xsmasher ◴[] No.37863582[source]
I don't know that story, but it's a similar premise to "There Will Come Soft Rains"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2552i2Z8sNM