The Future Is Here and It’s Making Us Lazy

High Tech Home with Low Effort

As I’m sitting here typing this from my iPad that is currently resting in my lap, my husband is playing games on his RetroPie from the bed. Meanwhile, my oldest son is using Discord to play Minecraft with his friend across town, and my youngest son is wearing a headset that covers half of his face, lost in his virtual reality world. Welcome to the future. It’s a world where technology shapes how we work, play, and even how we spend time together. But is it quite what we expected?

Alexa, Tell Me About the Future

We recently welcomed an Amazon Echo into our home and it’s been a game-changer! Just kidding – it’s honestly just made activities that never took much time at all a bit more cumbersome. Alexa can answer questions, play music, tell us the weather, and even manage our shopping lists. Now, if I were a person with no hands, this might be quite helpful. But it turns out I do have two hands that function just fine. So, let me explain why I don’t think the Amazon Echo has made my life any easier. 

1. It can answer questions!
   
   • In the months that we’ve had this device, the only questions we’ve asked are whether celebrities are dead or alive. I cannot think of anything else of importance we’ve felt the need to ask.
     
     
2. It can play music!
   
   • Now, while I agree that having music on a streaming service in one place is so much faster than changing records or cds, the development of being able to ask for a song out loud has not been a welcome change. If I had to estimate, I would say that the Amazon Echo correctly plays the song I want about half of the time. The other half is spent yelling things at the device such as, “Wrong version!” or “I said Fleetwood Mac, not Nickelback!”
     
     
3. It can tell you the weather!
   
   • So can my window.
     
     
4. It can manage your shopping list.
   
   • I normally keep a pad on the fridge where I can jot down items during the week and then take the paper with me to the store. But when I choose to have Alexa make a list and need to access it on my phone while shopping, my phone keeps timing out and going dark every time I go to look for an item. Not to mention, I have to enter my passcode to turn my phone on again to access the list. It’s much easier to whip a paper list out of my pocket.
     

Add to this, that while my husband intended to use the Echo for these practical purposes, our two young sons strictly use it for its comedic potential. “Alexa, are you dead?” “Alexa, who is the most popular Pokemon?” and my personal favorite, “Alexa… FART!” It’s a reminder that no matter how advanced technology gets, some things will always remain the same.

The Rise of the Robots

On the topic of advancements in tech, my husband recently gave a presentation to a group of 4th graders, asking them how they view the future. When asked about the technologies of the future, a disturbingly large number of them had one common answer: “Robot Slaves.” One child even drew a picture of himself commanding a robot to fetch chips while the robot stood in the corner, meekly obeying.

The hopes of the future as stated by 4th graders aren’t really that far off from what most adults want as well – the idea that robots will be at our service. It seems like everyone, regardless of age, is imagining a future where machines handle all the grunt work, leaving us with more free time to enjoy life.

At home, we’ve got a few “robot” helpers ourselves, and for these items, I will admit they are a huge help. Our cats’ automatic feeder makes sure the cats receive their food early in the morning, allowing us to sleep in later. The Roomba takes care of the daily vacuuming without us lifting a finger. I feel like visitors to our house think we’re the laziest family ever. Wait until I yell at Alexa to turn on the lights later.

The 3-D Printing Revolution

Our family has also jumped on the 3-D printing bandwagon. It’s mesmerizing to watch as this technology builds something layer by layer. So far, we’ve printed a bizarre circle and a tiny dinosaur. I can already tell this is going to be the topic of conversation at family gatherings for years to come. “I was one of the first to have a 3-D printer!” my kids will say to their own children. “And it took an hour to print something an inch tall!” The younger generation will roll their eyes and ask, “What’s the point? Now we just press a button and get anything we want in five minutes.”

Honestly, I’ve yet to make anything truly practical with our 3-D printer. So far, it feels more like a novelty. It’s probably easier to buy a bracelet at the store than to wait four hours to print one. But I guess that’s the way of progress, right? What seems amazing today may seem quaint in the future.

The Future Is Now

As technology continues to evolve, I can only imagine what the future holds. It’s likely that 3-D printing will become more advanced, allowing us to print items faster and with more precision. Perhaps robots will take on even more of the household chores (I’m waiting to see one put away the dishes), and voice-activated AI like Alexa will become even more accurate so that it can more easily integrate into our daily lives.

But one thing is for sure: the future is already here, and while it’s a mix of the practical and the playful, it’s just not as thrilling as we were led to believe. While we are making progress on eliminating some household chores, do we need to be putting so much effort into printing tiny dinosaurs and talking to devices about Pokemon? 

Until we develop the food replicators or teleportation devices of Star Trek, I’ll wait on purchasing more “future devices” that claim to make my life easier.