His name is Brad, and he's an addict. And a toaster.
Brad is the star of 'Addicted Products,' a design experiment recently named Best in Show at the 2014 Interaction Awards. As a connected toaster, he's in constant contact with other connected toasters like him -- and thus keenly aware of how much action they're getting. If he's not being used as much as his friends, Brad gets upset. He'll wiggle his little handle to get your attention, begging you to make some toast or at least to give him a reassuring pat on the side. Ignore him long enough, and he'll take a more drastic measure: pinging a network of potential owners to find a new home. Hey, at least he didn't burn down your kitchen.
Conceived by Italian designer Simone Rebaudengo, Brad is a glimpse into a bizarro near-future, one where the internet of things leads not to harmoniously interconnected gadgets but rather a house full of junkies -- appliances hopelessly addicted to being used. The fanciful premise evolved from a simple idea: What if the smart objects of the future aren't just smart, but also potentially jealous, petty or vindictive? What if, connected to and benchmarked against their peers, their relationships with each other start to inform their relationships with us?
Rebaudengo built a prototype to bring the scenario to life, wiring five toasters with sensors and ethernet and programming them to keep track of how much the other four were being used. He coded a website where people could apply to be the 'host' for one of the toasters (ownership being a more fluid concept when toasters can pack up and leave -- or call UPS to get packed up, anyway.) Then he let them loose in the wild. Brad was installed at a co-working space in Shoreditch, London.
Of course, even with processing power and an internet connection, our toasters aren't likely to succumb to peer pressure anytime soon. But the idea of things vying for our use isn't entirely far-fetched. We're already familiar with being pestered by our software, apps, and services. Think about how apps bug you about rating them in the App Store, or how ignored sites send you emails beckoning you back to visit. "When physical products will also be able to 'speak up,' there might be a battle for our attention on many fronts," Rebaudengo says.
But the bigger point of "Addicted Products" was simply to raise questions about what our relationships might look like with the products of tomorrow. A toaster like Brad isn't likely to make it to market -- insecure appliances probably don't make good business sense -- but it's not much of a stretch to think that products will someday be designed with goals that define and dictate their behaviour -- goals that might not always be in line with the moment-to-moment whims of their owners.
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Rebaudengo points to the example of a thermostat that's programmed to save money. If you've got the heat on full blast, and the thermostat knows that you'd be comfortable a few degrees lower, does it keep things pumping, or automatically dial itself down?
Nest is already dipping its toes into these murky waters with Nest Energy Services, a set of features that let people save money during peak energy hours. Currently, the programs are opt-in, but they're a perfect example of how immediate human desire and algorithmic efficiency could rub up against each other as products get smarter. "Behaviours and relationships are interesting new materials that we can shape -- and that we need to understand -- in order to design better experiences for people," Rebaudengo says.
The internet of things we've been sold is one of effortless efficiency. But the conversation between devices could become much more nuanced. Sure, there will be opportunities to smooth out little inconveniences of modern life-to have your lights shut off automatically when you leave the house, or for your coffee maker to start up when you stir in the mornings. But there are also places where weird new types of friction will pop up: devices misunderstanding each other, or disagreeing about how we should be spending our time; appliances disobeying or intervening to curb some of our wasteful or harmful habits.
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We're just beginning to explore this new connected world, Rebaudengo says, and it would be a mistake not to ask questions about some of the less obvious -- and less immediately desirable -- ways it could play out. "I think the seamfulness of this will be much more interesting than the seamlessness."
This article originally appeared on Wired.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK