Daniel+S’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016

America With Self-Regulating Refrigerators
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 * Text of Speech **

So, refrigerators. We all have them, (I would assume) we all use them, and they are a part of our lives. They are convenient, but have one problem that I find… Frustrating. They invite us to purchase too much food, forget that it exists, and then have it all expire and go to waste. Now, before you start to criticize where I am going with this, because I am clearly about to talk about a first world problem, remember that this is the America that I want to grow old in that we are talking about. America is a first world country, and so I will talk about a first world problem.

Where I got the idea for this is back when I was talking with my art teacher, Mr. Frazier. He was telling me that he had heard about some new product called “Amazon Dash,” and he claimed that it was the dumbest thing that he had ever seen. I don’t use amazon, or really buy anything off the internet at all, and had never heard of it, so he had to explain it to me. From my understanding, it is a small device with a button and the name of a brand that you would stick to some appliance in your house, and whenever you run out of a product, you just press the button, and it “purchases” the item for you through the internet, or creates some notification that will tell you that you need to buy more; something along those lines. The problem that Frazier had with such an idea is that first of all, it is really not that hard to walk over and order something on the internet, or furthermore, just go buy some. If you have children, there is always the problem of them pressing the button several hundred times, and ordering a lifetime supply of dishwasher soap. Or perhaps you press the button and then realize that you actually didn’t need to press it. And if everything goes well, there is still the problem of having to wait for the product to ship. For example, let's just say you buy one of these “Amazon Dash” devices to get more toilet paper. This gives you a false sense of security, and so when you run low on your toilet paper reserves, you just think, “well, I don’t have to worry about buying any more, because I can just press the button when I run out.” So of course the day comes that you have to do your business, and you run out of toilet paper. Luckily you have the “Amazon Dash” device next to you, so you press the button. Then what? Are you going to wait for the toilet paper to ship? How long is that going to take? So to avoid this, you would need to keep track of when everything is running low, and time everything perfectly for when you press the button in relation to when you run out. This completely defeats the whole purpose. Now of course if any of you out there are an avid user and supporter of this “Amazon Dash,” then please do not take offense to my criticism.

Anyway, to bring it back to refrigerators, my art teacher and I then discussed how you would have to do this “Amazon Dash,” correctly, in order to make it work. We decided that there is one resource that no matter how hard we try, we will always purchase it: food. I don’t know about you, but in my family, we have a problem of buying things, thinking we will eat them, only for them to go expired and go to waste. If I were to ever consider a device that would purchase items for me, I would want to perfectly calculate when to purchase food. Perhaps it would have a weight sensor, that would then be able to detect once you are running low on milk or eggs or whatever you have in your fridge. That way you would never over buy, and you wouldn’t waste any food. Of course you can still go out and purchase groceries, so that if you are planning a bigger meal, then you will have enough. But I think it is fair to say that there are just some food products that we just need by default. Whether you like orange juice in the morning, or you are the kind of person that has an apple for lunch every day, some things we do need in a steady supply. Or perhaps we just need a refrigerator that can notify us about when something is about to expire. Food that expires too quickly is so frustrating to me, so having a fridge that can stay on top of this would really be helpful.

Of course you may be wondering: a refrigerator that can regulate when things expire, what we want to eat, and what to order… Daniel, don’t you think this technology is a bit advanced? Even if it does exist, how much would this cost? It just seems a little bit out there. If you are wondering such questions, allow me to ensure you that I have considered these problems, and have an answer. What most people don’t realize is that human technological growth is not linear, it is exponential. If you ask where we will be in 20 years, you look back 20 years. But really, you would have to look back 100 years. Our technology always develops faster and faster- and we are at the tipping point. What this means, is that within our lifetime, there is going to be several thousand years of technological progress. Medical science will develop so fast that, if you are alive today, and you can stay alive for the next 40 years or so, you will likely live forever, or at least until you are ready to die. As crazy as it sounds, “The America I want to grow old in” is really “The America I want to grow to an adult and then live to be 2,000 years old in.” Our generation is actually more in danger of robots taking over the world than dying of old age. So if the question is whether or not we are technologically capable to have refrigerators that can keep us from wasting our food, I think it shouldn’t be a problem. With that having been said, I want to live in an America that makes my life a little bit easier by keeping my refrigerator stocked with the right amount of food, so that I won’t waste or run out of anything when I get hungry. Thank you.

Mr. Frazier "Amazon Dash" information for the second to last paragraph from "The AI Revolution: The Road to Artificial Intelligence," from "waitbutwhy.com," by Tim Urban
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