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by arter4 865 days ago
>Does a once in 40 years mistake justify carrying an app around that does god knows what else, and the extra expense and hassle of a fridge that might or might not spy on you?

>Do we need to therefore instrument our stoves, ovens, baths and basins to insulate ourselves from the other common domestic nightmare scenarios?

Exactly. There are a lot of things that could go wrong in daily life.

Let's say you are sleeping and one of the bed slats bends or breaks (this has actually happened to me). It's messy, especially because you wake up and putting the bed slat back is not easy. So what do you do? You either ignore the fact it may happen, or you say "well if it does happen, I guess I'll sleep on the couch or something". No one that I know, even among the most "smart home" obsessed people, has a bed which automatically beeps or sends a push notification if the slats are about to break.

Ok, now you wake up and nothing bad happened so far. You have breakfast (maybe you have a smart fridge which ensures you're not running out of yogurt or whatever). Then you go dress yourself. But then you realize your favorite shirt has a stain you didn't notice. Do you have a drawer that automatically beeps if your clothes have stains? Probably not. You either remember to watch closely your clothes and wash them properly, or say "whatever, I'll go with something else and I'll wash that later".

And so on. Life is full of minor inconveniences. That doesn't mean you should necessarily fill your life with sensors and beepers for every possible scenario. I might be getting too philosophical, but part of life is also becoming aware that things happen and you can't always be 100% safe in any possible scenario.

1 comments

And since you can't always be 100% safe in any possible scenario, NFPA, airbags, seatbelts, and the EPA are just ludicrous extravagances conceived by fools who don't understand the inevitability of death?
No but the impact (in terms of risk assessment) of a car crash is much worse than the impact of "hey, I forgot to completely close the fridge door"
There's a similar differencen in impact between picking up a second shirt in the morning and $100+ of food spoiling, but that didn't seem to bother you.
$100 of food spoiling in a decade vs picking up a second shirt maybe every month. They are different, but not that much.

And you're ignoring the first example about falling from your bed which, if things go wrong, can cause bone fractures which, especially in the US, could cost a lot more than $100.