Recent Amazon Web Services issues resulted in outages for food delivery apps, as well as some internet-"enabled"™ vacuums and pet food-dispensers.
This is reminiscent of Cory Doctorow's prescient story "Unauthorized Bread" which explores how the future of internet-of-things may affect society
arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01…
arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01…
... her toaster wouldn’t accept her bread. She held the slice in front of it and waited for the screen to show her a thumbs-up emoji, but instead, it showed her the head-scratching face and made a soft brrt. She waved the bread again. Brrt.
“Come on.” Brrt.
[...]
“Come on.” Brrt.
[...]
There was a touchscreen option on the toaster to call support, but that wasn’t working, so she used the fridge to look up the number and call it. It rang seventeen times and disconnected. She heaved a sigh. Another one bites the dust. ...
The toaster wasn’t the first appliance to go (that honor went to the dishwasher, which stopped being able to validate third-party dishes the week before ...), but it was the last straw. She could wash dishes in the sink but ... was she supposed to make toast over a candle?
...
...
Just to be sure, she asked the fridge for headlines about [the manufacturer], and there it was, their cloud had burst in the night. Socials crawling with people furious about their daily bread.
[mildly edited to fit char limit on Twitter]
I recommend the book, Radicalized.
More excerpts here:
arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01…
I recommend the book, Radicalized.
More excerpts here:
arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01…
Perhaps one moral of the story is that not everything should be internet-connected, or require a central power to authorize its use.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
