Maybe you have heard of the internet of things. It is about more and more devices communicating more and more completely and intelligently with each other. Picture your refrigerator noting the scan code on foods you remove but don't put back. The fridge can check with your trash can to see if, yep, you just threw away the wrapper on the butter so the fridge tells your phone to add "butter" to its internal shopping list. Then, that list will remind you of what you need when you next call it up in the grocery store.
Of course, your car will add "get gas" to the phone's list when it senses the gas tank is getting too low. Don't be surprised if you have set your options, or they come set so that your car system mentions you are approaching a gas station you have used before and asks if you want to stop to refill.
Maybe your shoes will tell your phone and your computer that they are getting worn down and need repair or replacement. Maybe you will say "Phooey" or stronger language about the whole deal and unplug, remove batteries and generally withdraw from participation. Naturally, the first 10 years will have failures as one idea after another is tried and rejected by many users.
I have been listening to Prof. Marc Zender on the history of writing and he emphasizes how long one technology can take to replace another. Clay tablets were the accepted way of writing in some Middle East locations for 3500 years, considerably longer than any current technology has been in use. So, don't expect this internet of things to be in full force tomorrow. However, we have energies and methods and machinery to replace and promote new ways much more rapidly that they did 3500 years ago.
In today's design of things, we like options, choices. So, you can be pretty sure that the internet of things will have options built in. We may reach the point where we are with an intelligent person, who can use knowledge of us personally, our past and our voice tone to realize what we mean and desire. However, as the number of choices and settings increase, we can lose track of just what we have done to our computer, our car, our phone, our tablet, our tv, etc. So, we move to "configurations", whole patterns of settings. We have that in our computers. I have it in my hearing aids. A pattern might be a "restore point." When we update something complex, a bug in it or in the update or a mistake we make hitting a key or made by the wiring or electrical system might fail to work as desired. So, we might choose to find a "restore point" of a week ago or a year ago and return all choices to the settings they held at that time.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
