[ExI] household organizer, was :RE: Serious topic

[Samantha Atkins]

On 03/10/2011 10:50 AM, spike wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
> ...
>>>>> [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38
> ...
>
>> ...That video seems to be much more about the interoperability of devices
> made by, presumably, companies who had little to do with one another, and on
> the possibilities of touch interface... Adrian
>
>
> Ja.  I am waiting for something analogous to Java for various household
> appliances.

Java or Java ME was proposed for that ages ago.  Due to Oracle now 
owning all that IP and Java ME being far less open/free than regular 
Java, I am not holding my breath.    But it doesn't have to be Java.  
Ruby, Python or most anything tossing XML (yes, ugh!) around could work.

> It needs to be some freeware open source universal language
> that devices can transmit via Bluetooth that will allow it to tell the other
> appliances what it is doing,
The data structure problem is the core along with some ability to 
download functionality that may be missing to talk to some particular 
device/system it becomes dynamically worthwhile to interact with.  Java 
was good at the second and not bad at the first.  Some equivalent of 
Jars and sandboxed code are needed.  Lisp would be great if used more 
and available more generally on embedded devices (tiny Scheme).


> how it is feeling, and to issue or take orders
> from other appliances.  I don't even yet know what that can be used for, and
> I recognize it carries its own risks.  I still want that capability in every
> home appliance that has any processors.  I want the appliances to be able to
> do self-diagnostics and diagnostics on each other.

You want the whole to be smarter than the sum of the parts.  Hence 
trading some code as well as data.

> If I have a security camera for instance, I want it to be able to get orders
> from my computer if my computer senses it is being moved about while the
> camera knows that I and my family are away.

You could just have the computer "scream" and anything that screams gets 
handled by the security system part of which is turning on local to the 
scream cameras.

> I want my computer to call out
> to the security system to swing around and take a picture of it, and then
> page me, and if I don't respond, to tell my landline to call 911.  Then set
> off my smoke detectors, all of them.  The neighbors will not do anything if
> my burglar alarm goes off, but if my smoke detectors imply that they may
> burn the neighbors' houses, that gets their full and undivided.
>

Kick up too much racket and you will be sued or charged.


> I want my bed to be able to detect if I have had a stroke for instance, and
> alert my cell phone to dial and inform Alcor for instance, then the 911,
> then unlock the doors so the medics can get to me, and once they get there
> tell them who to contact.

Before we get there I want to have microphones around the house to talk 
to all those largely idle computers and have them do reasonable things 
about the house (lights, TV, stereo, looking up information on the net, 
taking voice notes of that brilliant idea I had in the shower and so on.

> Forget community organizers, I want a household organizer.  I want to get my
> appliances talking to each other.  If they will just do that, I don't even
> mind if they form a union.

You will not be a happy camper when your computer[s] the toilet and the 
fridge all go on strike.

- samantha