Smart Home Islands

Living in a world of full ownership and limited interconnectivity

Wednesday, 2041-05-16 - As the bedroom curtains automatically slide open, the first rays of sunlight tickle Jane Lebowski’s nose. At the same time, her morning playlist starts playing. Jane snoozes the alarm for another five minutes and turns around, trying to get as much rest from those five minutes as possible. As the third song fades out, Jane finally decides to get up to take a shower. She then dresses up in the clothes suggested by Emma based on the weather and walks into the kitchen.

The family values having breakfast together. Chris, Jane’s Husband, is already at the table waiting for the rest of the family. Harrison and Zoe, the Lebowski’s children, are the last to join. As it is Wednesday, there is not much time in the morning. For that reason, each Lebowski takes Emma’s recommended breakfast. The meal is automatically prepared, and the smart kitchen personalizes the ratio of the ingredients individually based on each family member’s health status and preferences. Their service robot makes fresh orange juice and serves the family at the kitchen table. After breakfast, they put their dirty dishes back in the cabinet, where they are cleaned automatically.

Before leaving for work, Jane has to change her AR contact lenses into ones compatible with the augmented screens at the office. She still has to get used to this annoying inconvenience as she only recently switched her job. With her former employer, who was equipped with the same connected office system as the Lebrowkis have in their house, she did not have to do this.

The Lebowskis live in the suburbs of Munich. Jane has a fulltime job in the city, and her husband, Chris, works part-time and fully remote. Jane used to commute using CopterPool, which allowed Jane to share a Lilium air taxi with people from her neighborhood to get into the city quickly. Unfortunately, CopterPool went bankrupt some years ago. Jane, therefore, commutes by car. This commute takes over an hour because the traffic jam is inevitable. It was about 20 years ago when the city of Munich introduced automated driving on highways. Automated driving was perceived as very comfortable and very popular as the passengers efficiently spent their transportation time. This led to an unbearable increase in car traffic. Even though the regional trains were significantly faster, most people preferred their slower but private cars.

In 2041, rail-based trains are only used for the transportation of goods. Jane dreams about the possibility of reopening trains for human commute when she sees a freight train overtaking her in a traffic jam. While Jane is still stuck in traffic, her son Harrison prepares for his school day. On two days per week, he can decide between going to school or attending class remotely. Of course, he prefers the remote days, as he can sleep an hour longer. Yesterday he had been up late, playing Augmented Fortnight with his school friends running across the entire house.

Homeschooling has become easy. Sitting in his room, Harrison simply puts his AR contact lenses on and turns his AR Prism on, a device that projects himself in his usual desk spot in the classroom. Today even his teacher stayed at home. Mr. Snyder’s Hologram is already waving at the class

and waiting for the last of them to come in.

Only Kim and Steven are physically in school today and sitting in the first row. Harrison has always wondered why they never stay home. Steven has told him he prefers to study and meet other kids in person, but somehow Harrison doesn’t believe him. He has never seen Steve online in the holographic Fortnight sessions, and he also never participates in the AR sports games in school. Harrison has wondered whether Steve can’t join because his Mate devices are not working with the Google ones the school requires. But then Harrison’s best friend, Boris, appears in a dramatic fireball hologram on the left, and all the thoughts about Steve are forgotten.

Mr. Snyder rolls his eyes and, with a snap of his fingers, turns the fireball into a regular Boris. “All right class, today you learn about data structures!”. Although data structures are not his favorite topic, Harrison tries to pay attention and solves his quizzes 15 minutes before the session ends. That means he can rush downstairs to drink some Cocoa with his grandma Olivia.

Harrison finds Olivia in the garden. He has always wondered why someone enjoys working with plants. He does not like the manual work that his grandma enjoys. “Today, everything is solved with a machine that does things for you, sweety. When I was young, we weren’t so useless,” says Olivia, putting the gardening equipment on the floor and walking to the kitchen to grab the Cocoa. Harrison loves hearing grandma’s stories about a recent past that feels like such a different life.

After a long hour, Jane finally arrives at work. As there are not many meetings today, she can focus on the presentation she will hold on Friday in front of the company’s board. Around 03:00 pm, Jane usually feels the need for coffee. The smart office system at work has already recognized this behavior, and when she enters the kitchen, she smells the aroma of freshly brewed Colombian coffee.

Jane’s colleague Monica is also enjoying a coffee break. They met two weeks ago at a digital golf session. After finding out that they use the same intelligent home system, they talked about doing coached morning fitness sessions together.

Now they finally get to discuss this further. Monica is already excited: “I am so looking forward to this! Doing sport together really motivates me. It will be so much easier to get out of bed early in the morning.” “I know exactly what you are talking about!”, Jane responds with a smile. “I am also really excited to try out your pilates exercises!”

The two agree to start with their new joint routine the following Monday. Delighted by this thought, they return to their smart desks. Jane briefly reads two articles about the latest current affairs in her customized digital news journal before continuing to work on her presentation.

Even though Jane recently joined her new company, she quickly found a connection to her co-workers. Recently her closest friends from work started a weekly cooking meetup. This week, Jane is hosting the group. As they arrive at the Lebowskis’ home, they’re greeted by Emma, who lets them enter automatically, as they’ve been set on the whitelist for tonight. The days in 2041 are busy, always connected, and characterized by a strive for maximum efficiency. To help the group unwind, Jane asks Emma to activate the Bubble. This feature automatically turns all devices in the house to silent mode and only allows notifications in emergencies. Some of Jane’s friends use a different smart home system, though, and therefore have to put their devices into silent mode manually.

Most of the meals in the Lebowskis home are prepared automatically. But during these weekly cooking meetups, the group makes a point of preparing the meals by hand. Before starting this tradition, it had been many months since Jane had last prepared a meal by hand. She almost forgot how good it felt and how she used to cook to relieve stress when she was younger.

At some point, the group realizes that one of the main ingredients is missing. This is no cause for worry, in any case. In recent years, Gorillas had extended their on-demand drone delivery network to cover all of Germany. Jane asks Emma to order the missing ingredient, and a few minutes later, it is dropped on the Lebowski’s doorstep.

After Dinner, the group decides to play a round of augmented reality minigolf. They move to the living room, where the sofa can be folded into the wall to create a spacious gaming area. The guests without a compatible pair of AR contact lenses are equipped with spare AR glasses, which the Lebowskis keep for occasions like this.

After the guests have left, Jane asks Emma to start the winding down routine. Over the next hour, Emma gradually dims the lighting to simulate sunset and adjusts the room scents to create the right mood for sleeping.

Jane and Chris brush their teeth using their newest gadget: a fully automated toothbrush. The device is placed in the mouth and cleans the teeth without human interaction within 30 seconds. Jane was skeptical at first but now could not imagine using a hand-toothbrush anymore.

For tonight, the Lebowski’s select the wilderness sleeping ambiance. As Emma simulates crickets chirping and stars are twinkling in the night sky, the Lebowskis fall asleep, happy about the day that just passed.

Signposts

■ A study reveals that 9 out of 10 european citizens prefer owning consumer products to renting or sharing them ■ In the EU, ownership of Smart Home devices reaches a record high ■ Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook close open APIs and announce their app marketplaces ■ The EU reconsiders data protection laws and reduces data regulations. Large tech corporations gain even more power ■ The demand for Product-as-a-service models decreases dramatically. The last company offering subscription models for home consumer goods declares bankruptcy due to high operational costs and strongly diminished revenues ■ Major tech companies offer significant discounts if customers turn in devices from competitors ■ EU report: increasing interconnectivity of Smart Home appliances reduces time spent on decision-making at home by 57% ■ Quantum technologies enable new standards of security for interconnected home appliances ■ Mother sues school for declining her son because of

“incompatible tech ecosystem” ■ The EU bold plan on the circular economy: mandatory share of recycled materials in home appliances raised to 90%