Robot butlers never show up. Just more and more AI. It's always "Let us make your life easier by having direct access to bank accounts and the inner workings of your mind. It's never : here's a robot that will take your clothes out of the washing machine and fold and sort them in weekly outfits.
Tech companies just fill me with marvel. The sweeping generalisations. The bathwater out with the baby.
We don't need to hire people to create taxonomies, we can utilise use generated ones. We can automate moderation cos our AI can spot bullying and abuse.
"Add subtitles to your videos" they say on video sites. It helps blind people. Meanwhile blind people are using note takers like this Braille Sense U2 portable braille for the very affordable £4,074.00 or £3,395.00 without VAT.
I've spoken to blind people who say it's a lifeline to them. A lifeline that seems like it was created in 1985, then barely updated.
Thanks to the indomitable TikTok, I've found that so many blind people live on their own with tons of gadgets to get them through their day.
I've also found cleaning TikTok. They have lots of gadgets on there too. The right kind of scrubbing brush, even thought it won't last as long as a Wide Toothed comb(15 years) can make cleaning so much easier. Having problems with your back which is making empting out the mop bucket and moving furniture around a pain. Let me introduce you to vertical storage, putting things in clear boxes, spray mops and realising cleanliness is a tied in with privilege.
Vertical storage is using ladder-like furniture and shoe holders to keep shoes off the floor.
Clear boxes helps you remember what you have do you don't end up buying duplicates of things you already have and making your clutter problems even worse.
Spray mops are honestly a gift from heaven. I heard about the robot vacuums and longed for a mopping one.
I spent lots of time on ebay looking for cheap ones to try. However, the reservoirs for the water seemed tiny. So, you would have to spend your whole time fidling around with its tiny parts and bending down and picking it up off the floor. What I need, is a self filling, self charging device. Anything else seemed like an expensive, clutter adding learning curve mistake. Leaning curves are what every tech manafacturer denies. Using a Samsung phone, an ipad, a Windows PC at work and a macbook at home?
They! all! Work! The! Same!
Sounds like rich people problems!
Maybe we need to hire a Gen Z-er,I thought you were one? Oh, can you show me how to edit this PDF, and what does rich text mean?
Can't you just Google it?
This is fun, but what is even more fun when you have to use multiple databases at work on top of that. They all "have no learning curve" then Windows comes along and updates everything. But as tech innovators say, UX is an unnecessary expense and drags out and complicates the design process. Same thing with security. Basically anything that takes the shine away from their absolute brilliance. If you buy in a product that requires an expensive overhaul of a system or crashes everything else, user error. If hackers get into the system, user error. Factoring in users is a waste of their brilliant minds, sorry we bothered you with such a trivial thing. Sorry that UX people were the only ones wasting time on reviewing your little project, so you decided that they were the ones "blocking you". Or even better, in this clicks for payment era, that slandering an industry was the best way to promote your product.
Anyway, I digress. What was I talking about again? Oh yes, it was cleaning the floor. The next step down from an automated mopped was fancy mops. I had seen spray mops before, I didn't think that they would really clean the floor. The mechanism would jam. It would be a waste of money. Anyway, I got one this time. It was a game changer. Honestly, I couldn't believe how easy it was.
Had I really been messing about with a mop and bucket all this time?
Cleanliness being tied in with privilege is a strange one. Can only rich people be clean? Are poor, clean people "better" than poor untidy ones? Well, yes, in a way. They have more time, they have better metal health and physical health too. Still poverty, is humiliating, and someone who can see some colours, in the land of the blind, may decide to use this, to bolster their egos. Phrases such as "Cleanliness is next to godliness" and " They are not clean" gets thrown around.
But if you have a functional space, if your home is sanitary, mess can be overlooked.
Morally Neutral. One of those overly simplistic things that they come up with to explain evil. They could read Machiavelli but I suppose doing so would rob them off the glory of coining their own term.
So: finding labour saving tools, limiting your possessions and understanding your energy levels and accepting and planning for dips in your mood is more important than worrying about gaining the respect of people who don't really deserve it.
