Red Echo

December 15, 2016

Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better

There is a good business idea in this article of speculative fiction, which was written by an MP in Denmark:

Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better

Once in awhile, I will choose to cook for myself. It is easy — the necessary kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes. Since transport became free, we stopped having all those things stuffed into our home. Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe cooker crammed into our cupboards? We can just order them when we need them.

Well, why not? All my tools, which used to take up space in my house, now live at a makerspace, where they can be used by other people during the great majority of the time that I am not personally using them. How many kitchen appliances – or even just pots and pans – could be similarly homed elsewhere, if it could be assured that I could have them delivered whenever I actually needed to use them?

I cook a full meal for guests once a week. I cook a little bit, for myself, a handful of other times a week. The only pieces of kitchen equipment which are reliably used every single day in my house are the kettle and the coffee press. Yet the kitchen – which takes up about a quarter of one floor in the building I call home – is largely comprised of storage space, much of which serves to contain objects that are used at most once or twice a month.

Well, why not store it somewhere else? There are already banquetting services which will deliver a flat of glassware or plates or whatever if you are going to host a dinner party, and then pick them up again afterward. Why not do the same with boxes full of pots and pans, or with specialized hardware like a slow-cooker, a fondue pot, a panini press, or a waffle maker? I don’t own any of those objects and so I never cook the foods they are designed for, but I totally would if I could just have one dropped off whenever I needed it, without needing to purchase it, own it, and store it afterward.