We’re pushing the boundaries of technology, devices are getting smaller, have more processing power and are coming with better sensors. We already have electronic tables and holographic glasses on the way, things are only going to get crazier and your life will soon be a scene out of Minority Report. A typical smartphone can do a what an army of devices from previous years could do. (See this list for all the devices a 2012 iPhone had replaced) Yet many things about technology today are broken; i’m not talking about technological shortcomings but more about how technology works and how we interact with it. You can get a glimpse of the message i want to convey through the comic below: We’re not being liberated by technology but confined it; WiFi has become a factor when picking hotels for leisure trips, we can’t imagine more than a few hours without our phones, today the first order of business when you reach your destination after traveling is to plug in your devices; we’ve given devices a preference over ourselves! Now lets compare our smart devices to the not-so-smart devices of yesterday. Let’s take an example of the humble dustbin (yes, the dustbin is also technology at least by Wikipedia’s definition). The dustbin never notified you that it’s full or if it need to be cleaned, it just sat there quietly taking your crap. Sometimes you notice it being full (and many times you probably you smell it being full), and clean it out . Most people have a dedicated person or time of day to take out the trash.

Otherwise you’re never thinking about the dustbin. You’re never worried that you’re missing out on some fun because your dustbin is not the latest model. You’re never worried that the free dustbin someone gave you will be data-mined to target ads to you. The damn thing just gets the job done. That’s how technology should be, a layer, a forgotten layer which enables your life.  It doesn’t seek attention, it just works. More about ideas on how todays technology should be in a later post.