“We’re promised instant catalogue shopping—just point and click for great deals. (…) Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn’t—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.” This is what Clifford Stoll said about the rise of the Internet in an interview with Newsweek, back in 1995.
Since the emergence of the Internet, a lot has changed and the Internet has helped to shape the world as we know it today. I dare to say that every young adult in The Netherlands has ordered something online at least once in its life. For the younger generation ordering online feels like second nature, but how about the next step, in which you are not the one who orders, but a smart device is running your household and orders products for you online?
Currently, most tech giants are working on a smart fridge that will order food for you and will enable the fridge to become the hub in your household (Samsung, 2017). The smart fridge of today requires humans to manually enter items on lists to track and replenish inventory (Ricker, 2017). Samsung was one of the first to discuss this idea, however, it is Amazon who is putting the idea into reality. With the new developments in which the sensor of the fridge uses a deep learning system and is linked to your Amazon account, it will enable the system to order products without your interference (Ricker, 2017).
Sounds handy right? Never having to worry about shopping sounds good to most. However, what happens if your smart home runs your household, orders everything without your interference and after ordering delivers the products at your house with a drone delivery system? In this system, which Amazon is pursuing (Oswald, 2017), human interaction becomes redundant. But does it mean humans become redundant in the economic cycle as well and will we merely consume products? Time will tell.
References:
Ricker, T. (2017) Wanted: An Amazon fridge that automatically reorders food. [Online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/18/14308352/amazon-echo-refrigerator-reorders-groceries [Retrieved: 12-10-18]
Samsung (2017). Connection more kitchens with family hub 2.0. [Online] Samsung. Available at https://news.samsung.com/global/interview-connecting-more-kitchens-with-family-hub-2-0 [Retrieved: 12-10-18]
Oswald, E. (2017) Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s drone delivery project, Prime Air. [Online] Digital Trends. Available at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drones-history-progress/ [Retrieved: 12-10-18]
