I Hate Vacuum Cleaners

This might seem a bit absurd or hyperbolic but I think that vacuum cleaners are the archetype for the over-engineering which we see in literally everything today it seems. It's a simple problem really: floors get dusty and dirty and the grim has to be periodically removed, but it is not a fun task so we want a device that gets the job done quickly and effectively.

Now, there are a few very simple devices that have existed since time immemorial. There's the broom, the mop, and dustpan-and-brush. Brilliantly simple with no moving parts, no batteries nor power source needed, nothing that can really go wrong. The only caveat is that they only really work on smooth surfaces, and so, I hear you say, what about carpet! And its a very good point, vacuum cleaners are much better at cleaning carpet, and my answer that is simple: don't have carpet. Just get a rug instead, which can be patted down outside, or cleaned like every other piece of fabric you own. Vacuum cleaners are a solution to a problem that does not need to exist! They're temperamental, noisy, energy-intensive, and most of all wholly unnecessary.

I must say, that not only do I think that they're an archetype of over-engineering they're also a microcosm of how my views on many things have changed over the last decade or so. In my youthful naivete I used to be vehemently pro-technology: everything from clinging to rumours of new Apple products to evangelising anyone who would listen to the self-driving vehicles that were going to reshape the economy literally any day. I used to think that Roombas were the future; that we would finally be seeing the domestic robots that sci-fi had long promised. Time and time again everything novel ends up just being a nebulous cloud of hype that fails to meaningfully change anything. I've become jaded with even the word "technology". Everything new is just a more convoluted solution to a problem long since solved.

nihil novi sub sole, as they say

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Last Updated: 2023-06-04

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