HACKER Q&A
📣 lucic71

When did we start to assign “smartness” to technology?


Every phone, fridge, TV and car is smart now. When did this trend start and why do the companies that sell these product keep using it? Is it only a marketing strategy or is it something deeper in this "smartness"?

My guess is that technology cannot be smart. People are smart because they do innovative things, dogs are smart when they find things that are well hidden or do tricks, little kids are smart when they discover patterns in movement and speech, but not lifeless technology that is programmed to do a specific task.

It's weird as a human to think that a tool can be as conscious as you because, you know, it's just a tool.

  👤 jaclaz Accepted Answer ✓
It is only marketing (strategy is a serious word, that cannot be used for this madness).

"Smartphone" was reportedly first used for the Ericsson R380:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson_R380

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE8DnLzdcKs

👤 mikewarot
Historically, I think it's when we started controlling the path of cutting tools with other tools, such as the thread cutting lathe of Henry Maudslay.

The Portsmouth Block Mills are the first example of integrated mass production using machine tools.[1]

  1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Block_Mills
👤 cratermoon
Smart seems to mean "does trivial little things like turn the heat up and down depending on the time of day" or somewhat self-sustaining. In other words, automation, but with parameters. Consider a trivial example that predate "smart" tech: an ice maker that knows when the ice is low and makes more, but stops when it's full. It relieved people of the burden of refilling the ice trays. A car that switches to a fuel-conserving mode when the gas (or battery charge) drops below a certain level. Now think of something you have to remember to do that the device either does for you, or at least reminds you to do it.

It's all about the same way consumer gadgets have always been marketed: to save the owner time, energy, and money, leaving them with more time for leisure and fun. Or today, leaving them more time to work to afford rent and food along with all the gadgets.

👤 byoung2
I think the term "internet- connected" is more accurate. If it can pull in "smarts" from the cloud, that doesn't make the device smart, it makes it a ventriloquist dummy.