zlacker

We call them embedded systems and customers call them dishwashers or air fryers or blenders. Those are the kitchen computers, no?

>>dr_dsh+(OP)
Modern appliances sometimes use computers because tiny SOCs are cheaper than electromechanical mechanisms, but the user interfaces of those appliances have scarcely changed. They haven't really caused much in the way of social change.

>>dr_dsh+(OP)
I do agree, many of our other appliances have become more computerized. My dishwasher has several different sensors which can change how it runs its cycles and dispense an automatic amount of soap based on detected dirtiness of dishes. My clothes washer is similar, and my drier works until the clothes reach a desired level of dryness instead of just a timer. My microwave's sensor cooking modes are surprisingly good, often when all I need to do is reheat food I just toss it in the microwave and hit "Reheat" and the microwave gets it right to steaming and stops without burning. All of these are driven by computers watching multiple sensors and constantly tweaking parameters of their operation to reach the desired final state.

Its still interesting though that it seems like in the 70's they were still expecting there would be some centralized computer in charge of it all while in reality computing got so small and so cheap its found its way to each appliance on its own.