Jim's Blog

I want an intelligent agent

One of the things that I want now is a intelligent agent. I want something that stops me from getting calls when I'm at a movie. Something that knows (from sensors) that the furnace needs to be cleaned and reminds me when it's noticed I've refreshed slashdot for the 3rd time in an hour get up and go do it. Something that knows from the calendar that I'm planning a trip and suggests appropriate things to pack (e.g. a suit vs a sleeping bag). It would also recognize that I usually want my metal 1978 Star Wars lunch box for overnight trips that involve me wearing a suit, and suggests it when I forget to add it to the list.

The location services are there. The learning algorithms exist. The sensors are there. Networked devices exist. The basic idea of this is already a running service with if this than that. There just needs to be more glue, more polish, and the biggest hurdle of all: to get over peoples laziness and cheapness. I think that the funny thing is that an intelligent agent would probably save people a lot of money and time as time went on. It's just that the first steps on a journey are usually the most difficult to tell yourself to take.