Every household appliance should follow the same philosophy as GNU software: one thing well.
A toaster should toast things, without breaking down due to thermal cycling.
It should not make a table of what was toasted and when.
A refrigerator should maintain a low temperature, without burning out its motor.
It should not build an inventory and communicate it to a corporation.
An oven should maintain a user-specified high temperature, without starting a fire.
It should not measure the weight of its contents and give dietary advice.
But most of all, none of these things should connect to the internet [of things]. They should be as dumb and robust as possible. They should be future proof by virtue of having no compatibility requirements beyond
- energy source and
- physical dimensions.
There's a sewing machine in front of me that was built in the mid fifties. Its only compatibility requirements are the physical dimensions of needle and bobbin, and a 230VAC power supply. It is perfectly reliable after more than sixty years and should still be in another sixty. It's solid metal and might well be operable for centuries with very little maintenance. I doubt that the same could be said of modern machines full of plastic and microprocessors.
tl;dr I'm a tech person and I endorse OP's message.
