A conversation just now with my girlfriend:

So “you wouldn’t start from here, an example. The light bulbs in this room are 6-10 watt low voltage DC devices. Each one contains an AC to DC step down converter to lower the 240 volt AC supplying it, the fuse for which is next to the smarthome hub it uses a mesh radio network to get its instruction to turn on from”

“You can see why that happened though”

“Yes. Heating shit until it glowed to make light needed lots of current so now we are stuck with that stupid legacy”

“In their defence the tech to make decent LEDs was not there so we had to rely on incandescence.”

“I see the trauma of CFLs has been erased from your memory. Remember a film called Arthur II? Dudley Moore. Eighties. ‘Instant On Lighting’ was played for a laugh. And then CFL happened and it wasn’t funny any more. But it could be worse; Hey Siri, turn on the lights”

A pause of a few seconds.

“Working on it”

… a further pause

The lights come on.

“In fairness you know where that delay is coming from”

“Yes. It’s coming from FUCKING CALIFORNIA. Turning the lights on requires a signal to cross the Atlantic via fibre optic cable TWICE and a data centre using water that Sacramento DOES NOT HAVE. Our people made a film called Idiocracy in which WE WERE THE SMART ONES”

“You could have just used the switch”

“Fair”