• Enchanted Objects

  • Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things
  • By: David Rose
  • Narrated by: Corey Brill
  • Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)

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Enchanted Objects  By  cover art

Enchanted Objects

By: David Rose
Narrated by: Corey Brill
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Publisher's summary

In the tradition of Who Owns the Future? and The Second Machine Age, an MIT Media Lab scientist imagines how everyday objects can intuit our needs and improve our lives.

We are now standing at the precipice of the next transformative development: The Internet of Things. Soon, connected technology will be embedded in hundreds of everyday objects we already use: our cars, wallets, watches, umbrellas, even our trash cans. These objects will respond to our needs, come to know us, and learn to think on our behalf. David Rose calls these devices - which are just beginning to creep into the marketplace - Enchanted Objects.

Some believe the future will look like more of the same - more smartphones, tablets, screens embedded in every conceivable surface. Rose has a different vision: Technology that atomizes, combining itself with the objects that make up the very fabric of daily living. Such technology will be woven into the background of our environment, enhancing human relationships and channeling desires for omniscience, long life, and creative expression. The enchanted objects of fairy tales and science fiction will enter real life.

Groundbreaking, timely, and provocative, Enchanted Objects is a blueprint for a better future, where efficient solutions come hand in hand with technology that delights our senses. It is essential listening for designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone who wishes to understand the future and stay relevant in the Internet of Things.

©2014 David Rose (P)2014 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Well done

In my opinion, this book should be absorbed in between The Design of Everyday Things and Reality is Broken.

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3 people found this helpful

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Living in an enchanted world

This book conjures a magical "Harry Potter" world where soon ordinary-looking objects will be able to perform extraordinary tasks for us, thanks to the Internet.

Today, many home appliances can be linked together online, and Rose says this "Internet of Things" could extend to include any number of comfortably familiar objects in our daily lives—none of which will require a smart phone or computer to operate. (Think of having a light in your home that indicates the outside air temperature by color, versus using a weather app on your phone. The app gives you more detailed information, but the light tells you the basics of what you want to know in a glance.)

"Enchanted Objects" offers an easy-to-understand explanation of what the Internet of Things is, and what it could be in the future.

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Don’t know what to say...

Brilliant information. Interesting info. But OMG, he should never, ever, narrate his own book again. Morose reader!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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A little dated but good concepts mostly

This ebook was an ok listen however I was expecting a little more technical substance. Author talks mostly about existing technologies with future flairs. The author does indeed have an imagination that will probably materialize into reality in the future. This is by no means a technical book.

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a metaphor for connected objects

The field of connected objects, IOT and Ai/machine learning is advancing very fast but the book after 4 years still proves to be insightful because David Rose, regardless of current advancements, offers a way to look at the development of these objects through the lens of enchantment. His argument is to use metaphors of magic and fairy tales so that people will more intuitively understand connected objects. This, he also backs up with the dreams of people to have superpowers like teleportation, telepathy, immortality, and other things like that, which these objects increasingly start to give us. He argues against the reigning paradigm of the "black slab" that is limiting us in terms of affording more magical and desirable interactions. David is himself a professional in the industry and gives interesting examples throughout the book from his own practice. You can find a presentation from him on SlideShare that sums all this up. It's very nice to listen to this book to get inspiration. I've noted down several ideas listening to it. The speaker's voice could be better, though.

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Not new

No real value , all the usual, even boring.
Thanks for writing the book, but a few to remember.

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completely enchanted

we must keep this generation and future generations imagining. exciting, exciting stuff, to be so creative, yet delineated and structured in sharing all of this.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Thought provoking

A great book for spurring ideas for new technologies and thinking about how the future may look.

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