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The Type-A, High-Tech Bathroom
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Hard-driving homeowners have converted their loos into virtual satellite workspaces, with retractable desks or waterproof touch-screen monitors, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the features: showerproof computers and mirrors with stock quotes. But beware the accidental 'BlackBerry dunk' in the toilet or sink. 'Audio One says about all of the 30 home-automation systems it's installed near its Miami head office in the past year--prices can reach $200,000--have featured TVs in the bathroom. "It's become a given," says company engineer David Sussman. "There's not much sanctity left." '"
If you can't even cut the umbilical to the television long enough to take a dump, you need to seriously re-examine your priorities. Next they will be putting computers and refrigerators in there and nobody will ever have to leave the throne room.
...or at least more than usual.
Not to be pessimistic about the technology on display, but does anybody really crave this? At my workplace I'm lucky if you manage to squeeze in (or out?) the time to use the facilities in peace, let alone being able to carry on working while present.
I think it would be about time to sit down and seriously assess your throughput (haw) if you'd reached the point where you could honestly say you need that kind of information present while attending the throne. I see the bathroom as the last calm and sensible place in my home, possibly to the point of insulating the walls so the mere presence of wifi can't exist in such a sacred space.
After a 60 hour week with a myriad of after hours calls, notifications exploding into inboxes and pagers like hand grenades, and the proverbial generally hitting the fan (or the terminal in this case), I'd soon choose to walk a few blocks to a public loo than step into a wired bathroom. You never know what you might be walking into.
In an era where some kids have to walk miles through some of the poorest and toughest neighborhoods in the world, just to do email at a library..... we're talking about $200K conspicuous consumption 'tech' bathrooms.
Somehow, out-of-control capitalists just can't stop from writing about their new awesome dead-end look-at-me wicked hot toys. What a waste of digital space.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
This is about embarrassment.
I agree that it's anyone's right to spend money in whatever way that makes them feel like royalty.
And it's also my right to point out that spending $200K on a bathroom is plainly ludicrous and without merit. It reminds me of other noveau riche, grandiose stupidities.
No, I'm not in academia. I just have sensitivities towards irrational excess.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
I have never understood why people make such an issue of the toilet seat. If it's up when you arrive in the restroom and you need it to be down, you can put it down. If it's down when you arrive in the restroom and you need it to be up, you can put it up. NOBODY should concern themselves with the damn status of the toilet seat. Leave it in the position that it ended up in after you used it. The only thing I require of the toilet seat is cleanliness. Other than that, I don't care about the position. Don't you have enough concerns already?
So where is the line then. A few years ago, we expanded our home to add another bedroom and replace/expand the master bath. The cost of the project was about $50,000. A bit over half of that was for the bathroom. Is this exhuberant; it is if you live in an apartment and can't afford anything else, but not if you live in a bigger house that already had a large master bath.
Likewise, undoubtedly the first indoor bathrooms were considered rediculous wastes of money. The first outhouses were probably seen that way as well. But at least in civilized countries, not too many people crap in the woods or in outhouses any more.
The real issue here is jealousy, and if it isn't, lead by example. Calculate the average worldwide annual income (I believe around $5k in 1999) and every cent you make over that, give to someone who earns less than that average. Socialism starts with you.
The fact that some peoples parents left them some money, and they want to use it on a bathroom, doesn't really bother me. I want to build a giant luxury home some day, it's a good goal to keep me motivated in my business.
The great thing about America, is that there is no dynasty or caste system. My grandfather started out living in the ghetto of Baltimore city. Through years of hard work, he moved out of the city into a nice area he could afford in the suburbs. He built the house himself so that he could afford it.
He motivated his sons to do better for themselves, and they went to college, got a good education, and good white collar jobs. They did the same with there sons. My cousin graduated from high school, college, and then law school first in his class thanks to his fathers motivations. He is now a very successful lawyer. I started a business with the help of my father, and am becoming successful as well. Every generation in our family has worked a little harder, been a little smarter, and tried a little harder to get where we are today.
My point is, if I make enough money to be able to afford a $200k bathroom someday, I am going to have a $200k bathroom, because I earned it. I fully expect that someday I'll be able to groom my son into being a self sufficient and successful person as well, hopefully even moreso than myself. All of those things you mentioned will ultimated be cured by capitalism. If AIDS becomes enough of a threat, it will become a big enough cash (or glory) cow to be worth curing. Alternate fuel sources are also starting to be addressed by the free market.
If you really have such a problem with people making lots of money and then spending it on, god forbid, themselves, and not societal issues, then please, show us the way, start a business, outcompete your competitors, and make a fortune. Then cure disease and do as much public domain research and world saving as possible. Live in a modest apartment and own nothing.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill