Technology is pervasive, but a robot mopping the floor... really?

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Posted by Ciaran Dwyer, February 19th 2012;

With young kids, we tend to take a pragmatic laid-back approach about household cleanliness.  If you even get the time to sporadically clean, it will quickly become untidy and dirty, so why bother?

You've probably heard about the automatic little sweepers and moppers available today.  We received a gift of one from a family member who was probably tired of treading on a permanently dirty floor when visiting.  Not so subtle a gift, but you can't argue with the practicality of it.



It functions with the aid of a GPS box.  Now before you make assumptions, our home is modest and does not require a GPS to find your way around.  The GPS does help our new rodent-like friend find his way around the floor plan.  Notice, I did refer to it in the male gender, as from a young age my before-her-time-Irish-mother was over the top at ensuring I did my fair share of household chores on top of the many garden chores that my four sisters were spared from.

Enough of the self-pity and back to the mopping.  It works with minimal effort on our part, although it takes about four times as long as the human version.  Not dissimilar to its human counterpart, our little friend gets lost sometimes and appears to be driving around aimlessly.  If we assume it's a she, then perhaps it's spending time chatting to the GPS and not as interested in following the directions.  If it's a he, then there must be an egotistical and stubborn refusal ingrained to ask for directions.  Regardless, after some awkward manuevers and changes in direction, he or she somehow gets the job done.

You have the love the American ability to take all the little inconveniences out of our daily lives.  I've got to go away now and invent a device that potty trains kids in less than an hour.  Just remember: there is technology for everything, but knowing which, when and where to use it is still the purview of us humans.

Ciaran Dwyer is the CEO of 3t Systems.

To read Ciaran's Musings on Business, Technology and more, please visit his BLOG.