I am a sucker for a gadget, especially of the domestic kind. So it was a pleasure to read about the gizmos on display recently at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Particular favourites were the voice-activated bidet (I have always believed in water over wiping – better yet, both – and have a theory that we are being brainwashed by “big tissue”); a pillow that adjusts the sleeper if they snore; and a robot mop-vacuum hybrid that claims to seek out stains.
I will admit that there is something of the last days of Rome about CES. Here it is, the culmination of efforts from some of the greatest tech minds of our generation, solving problems that were … not really problems to begin with. Like this year’s much-lauded reveal of the see-through TV. That’s right, it looks like glass when it’s off, finally addressing the issue of a television looking like a television.
