I Feel Like the World is a Tuxedo and I'm a Pair of Brown Shoes.

At one of my first after school jobs I was packing something and having a very difficult time. My boss walked up behind me and said, "Chuck, you just need to be smarter than the box."

After all these years I still remember and think of that advice as a metaphor. Now boxes I have no trouble out smarting but the items inside them are another story.

I just read an article titled Nine Reasons You May Never Use Cash Again. It's about what may soon become a cashless society.

Most reasons listed were things I already do, common things, things like credit and debit card use. It also spoke to PayPal and Bitcoin. I've used PayPal and always need to ask Wanda how and what I do. BitCoin I know nothing about. Payments using this method seem limited and somewhat shady or nefarious but that may be my ignorance. The author of the piece left out the main and number one reason I could become a cashless user, a lack of.

Of all the reasons people will abandon cash there are some I doubt I'll ever need or use.

The Internet of Things

As devices get smarter, they could begin to make payments for you. LG already has a "smart refrigerator" on the market that tracks the food you've got and puts together a suggested shopping list for you. As the IOT (Internet of Things) progresses, experts say auto-reordering of food—whether from the local grocer or online services like Amazon—could become a fairly common practice in American homes.

The stereotypical bachelor fridge: HEY....YOU'RE OUT OF BEER

I stayed in a hotel that had a mini bar just like a "smart fridge." One evening I took out a small bag of nuts, the next day it was replaced and I had $4.10 added to my bill. 

Will future kids grow up hearing, "Close the fridge you're letting all the cold out." and "Don't touch anything."

I have questions.

How is a smart refrigerator going to tell the difference between red leaf and romaine lettuce or cat food and tuna? If I buy and stock kumquats, find I don't like and throw them out, will the device think I ate them all quickly because I loved them and order a large supply? Will it know when the milk turns sour? What about cheese? Is storing butter in the freezer a problem?

Some future day may very well see a car telling a house it's on the way home. The lights will be on, the thermostat regulated and the garage door open when it turns down the street. This is a great leap in convenience especially when compared to my Aunt June who could never remember where her house was located. She would drive into her neighborhood holding down the button on the remote to the garage door and when one opened she'd drive in.

One evening she left the house with the TV control and created havoc when she changed hundreds of channels on her way home.

Smoke alarms will know the difference between burnt toast and a burning kitchen. Smart monitors can tell if a baby's cry is because she is hungry or tired. Diapers will send a signal to wake up mom or dad when wet or poopie, almost always mom when poopie.

Several years ago we replaced our heating and air conditioning system. In addition to (at the time) the most modern, sophisticated and energy efficient equipment we bought a programmable thermostat. I could set it to make changes up to eight times a day. I never did. It was just too damn difficult.

Now I see this.

Auto-Schedule was the first feature we thought of for the Nest Learning Thermostat. We knew most people didn’t program their thermostats – it’s just too complicated. So Auto-Schedule just learns the temperatures you like. No programming necessary. It’s why 95% of Nest Thermostats have schedules and it’s one of the main reasons Nest is a “learning” thermostat. So we’ve never stopped working on Auto-Schedule, using all the data we’ve gathered from people adjusting their Nest Thermostats across more than 130 countries.

It's nice to know a home in Norway is adding to California information.

If your Nest Thermostat notices you’re away, it can have Whirlpool switch to a refresh mode when your cycle ends, so your clothes stay fresh and wrinkle-free. This would be great for me since I always wear clothing straight out of the dryer. 

There should be no doubt Nest is the way of the future. The company was bought by Google for $3.2 billion.

With reliance on artificial intelligence and a potential sense of detachment it's likely two of my favorite fictional devices will become reality.

The orgasmatron and the orb.

Growing fruits and vegetables at home seemed like a huge hassle…up until now. 

Niwa, a giant glass cube that grows anything you want via a touch of a button on your smartphone, “is the first fully automated hydroponic system that attends to all of your plants’ needs so you don’t have to.” 

This vegetable aquarium has settings built into it for all kinds of edible goodies. For example, after purchasing cucumber seeds, you would simply put them in the designated pod and press the button for “cucumber” on your smartphone. The Niwa would then use automated irrigation, climate control, smart lighting, and ventilation to create some perfect cucumbers.

Can I get a nip app from Google Play?

What drains your pockets every month, is necessary to get through the day, and is enjoyed by practically everyone in the world? 

Coffee.

Coffee is very good for you. Dr. Rob van Dam, Harvard’s expert on coffee and health said. "Research over the past few years suggests that coffee consumption may protect against type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis.”

Mr. Coffee is about to release their version of a “smart” appliance very soon. Because it will be connected to WiFi, you can set up timers and brew your coffee from anywhere—as long as you have your phone. You can imagine a scenario not too far into the future where your phone has a sensor on it that detects when you wake up—which, through the power of home WiFi, could automatically trigger your coffee pot to start grinding those fantastic beans you recently harvested from the Niwa in your living room.

I don't use the delay brew timer on my Mr. Coffee now. 

Oh my god I think my head hurts.

Call me when someone invents a smart toilet....oh, they already have.

The Kohler Numi .....How can you not love the heated seat, foot warmer and blue tooth music selections? 

This toilet can be yours for $4,573.20.