Victoria Turk (As a jaded tech journalist, I’m in a battle to keep ‘smart’ devices out of my home – despite my partner’s efforts, 9 November) makes an important point about the excesses of “smart” internet-connected appliances, and it is certainly true that many of us are truly spoilt: not only do we have devices that make it unnecessary for us to make any physical effort, we are now browbeaten into giving up any vestige of real control over those devices. But there are two other crucial points that Turk fails to make.
First, the more complex the technology, the more likely it is to go wrong. When a vacuum cleaner malfunctions, I can usually fix it. If a “smart” device malfunctions, most of us don’t know where to start. Hence wasted time, frustration and a predictable tendency to throw it away and get a new one. This benefits only the grotesque late capitalism that cares nothing about the consumer or the planet.
The other elephant in the room – which is rarely mentioned – is the catastrophic contribution to global warming of all the internet junk: from millions of hours of garbage videos uploaded to social media sites to the “smart” data discussed by Turk. The servers that enable the storage and use of all those exabytes of data use vast amounts of energy, and, presumably, the measures to keep the locations of the servers secure also require enormous amounts of energy.
A youthful generation for whom using the internet and social media is like eating or breathing is not about to change its habits. The situation is approaching apocalypse, as nature rebels. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Dr Jan Udris
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
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