Both A and B halls full of visitors, around 480 exhibitors and rarely enough oxygen for everyone. But, believe it or not, I did manage to pass all (!) booths without fainting. Afterwards though I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. After some of the Trendspotting lectures, like for example the latest one with Sven Tollmien or the one with Piers Fawkes, I seem to be hard to impress when it comes to gadgets. I’ve seen so many unbelievably clever examples presented in class, looking like something taking from a science fiction movie, so that a Handpresso does not really amaze me that much anymore.
However, among all these different products and offers, one could at least see two clear trends filling the atmosphere: the environmental awareness and the strive for automatization.
The first one is rising today more than ever. People were really buying the new environmental friendly tools and products, everything from light bulbs and paint to sofas and fridges. The only small problem is that for every new fridge that buys to a home, there is an old one that has to go to recycling, and what people do not think about is the cost of the recycling process. Of course when it comes to the very old fridges that contain Freon, the best way is to recycle them as soon as possible. But if you have a fridge on a fairly new model, you might by recycling generate more costs than good.
But except for this rising environmental awareness, all products of today undeniably have to be self-cleaning, self-defrosting, prefabricated, preprogrammed or ready to use, no manual work needed. This unbelievable strive for the automatization seems to be what people want these days. I am not saying that I belong to the crowd of reactionaries opposing all progress in the world, I as well prefer things to happen fast and in an easy way with as little physical activity involved as possible. This seems to be the most desirable wish of the new generation. But are we aware of the consequences of this? Do we know where this simple wish will lead us? Is now the time to say “Be careful what you wish for”?
The humans in wall-e got their wish through, the existence became as simple as they hoped for, full of robots to do any kind of effort or other unwelcome jobs like cleaning, shopping, transportation, even refilling the drinks. But what happened to them and their bodies? The lack of physical activities transferred their bodies to seal- or whale-alike forms, with no possibility to move without help of their transportation seats. Of course this future scenario is made in a funny and childish way in the movie, easy to laugh at and joke about, but how far from this future scenario are we now? What if we actually would end up looking like the people in wall-e as a consequence to our wish of speed and simplicity in the world? Would we still want things to happen fast and easy? I don’t know about you, but considering this I’d much rather wipe my floor once a week myself, than buy a self-moving vacuum cleaner, in order to get some every-day exercising, even though I couldn’t name the more boring house duty..
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