Smart Condoms And Other Stupid Technology Pieces

Smart condoms and other stupid technology pieces

 

The need to include technology in any area of ​​life generates a kind of false positives: devices that do not solve problems, but are just new marketing lines for manufacturers.
Perhaps one of the promises that has penetrated most of modern life is the possibility that everything can be solved with technology: it seems that there is nothing that can not be improved through it.

This seems to be a mantra widely disseminated by the industry to which, of course, it is very convenient to create needs and problems where there may not be either.

Read also: The dangers of thinking that technology works miracles

In technology, one of the fastest growing sectors today is the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), which in its broadest concept is the connection to the Internet of all types of devices to improve their performance and provide extra data, which can be very useful in industry, health care and even education.

For example, there are projects to monitor bed occupancy in hospitals or atmospheric data from environments that need controlled humidity and temperature in health institutions, such as clinical laboratories. There are vibration meters for power plants in oil fields or devices to remotely record the state of cargo trucks.

This is the most useful, and perhaps necessary, part of one of the great current movements in technology. But, as in everything in life, there is an opposite side: the devices that nobody really needs, the technology that serves to solve the useless.

The list can start with a smart condom (which is actually a ring that fits around a condom) and measures data such as calories, duration of a session and even the strength of the movements.

The idea is from the company Birtish Condoms, based in England, which sells each device for just under US $ 80.

Beyond its operation, correct or not (although in the forums of users there seems to be no greater complaint), we must ask ourselves: why, with a demon, why?

In a world driven by data and information, trying to have a calculation of calories and performance of sex could be useful for a clinical study. In the rest of the cases it seems to embody everything that is wrong with modern technology: not everything requires a solution with IoT or a “smart” device or an application to better understand the performance of things.

It is not a question of demonizing technology or doing away with the efforts and inertia of the IoT, but of stopping and reflecting a bit. Is all this necessary? Who wins, who benefits from a smart condom or an egg tray that says how many eggs are left? Is not it easier to open the fridge and look? Is not it better to have sex not to lower, or measure, calories but for the rest of the associated pleasures?

Read also: When technology passes to the couch, a reflection on the promises of the future

The list of intelligent technology that, frankly, is somewhat stupid can continue with automatic blinds to protect plants (US $ 350), toasters of US $ 100 with Bluetooth connection or water bottles of US $ 60 that remind you when they will be empty through an app.

In a certain way, the appearance of this type of devices is very much in line with a comment made in Silicon Valley: “Today’s technology is designed to solve the things that my mother does not do for me anymore”.

And this logic has a single clear winner in all cases: not the users, but the companies.

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