Three Kinds of Irresistible Tech From the Consumer Electronic Show

Last year in Las Vegas, 171,000 (or so) attendees could have looked at 4,400 new technology exhibits at CES (the Consumer Electronic Show). This year it was all digital and somewhat overwhelming. So, as always, I am depending on the reports I read to select my three favorites.

Please let me know if you agree.

New Technology From CES

Bot Handy

My absolute favorite was the Samsung robot that will empty my dishwasher, set the table, and do who knows what else!!!

The video is enticing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-3c9Pt3_J0

Robo Pets

Having lost my Scarlet to old age, I miss her but am not ready to adopt a kitten.

Instead, Maicat Robot Cat is a possibility.

I also took a long look at Moflin:

And decided against the large and mini-versions of Qoobo, the pillow with a moving tail:

A Flying Cadillac

Still just a concept, as a single or two seater, the eVTOL from GM lets you leave the office, head for the roof, and fly to your next appointment. It looks amazing:

Our Bottom Line: Creative Destruction

I like to think that this year’s new technology will become “next” year’s (or maybe the next decade’s) necessities. It all reminds me of Joseph Schumpeter’s creative destruction.

An academic superstar, an Austrian finance minister, and a Harvard professor, economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) once proclaimed that he aspired to become the world’s greatest economist, horseman, and lover. He then said, “Things are not going well with the horses.”

After working in government, business, and academia, Joseph Schumpeter emigrated  from Austria to the U.S. in 1932. At Harvard, his research focused on the rise and fall of capitalism. Its ascent, he believed, would be fueled by entrepreneurs while the collapse would come from a resentment against the elite.

We associate Joseph Schumpeter with creative destruction. As he explained, entrepreneurs create jobs, progress, and productivity. They change consumer habits, design new means of production, and develop new forms of economic organization. But they also create the pain connected with the demise of old industries as new products and processes replace what had existed.

Through creative destruction, autos replaced the horse and buggy, the light bulb eliminated kerosene lamps, and typewriters disappeared. What will GM’s flying Cadillac replace?

My sources and more: The best CES favorites list were at WSJ and The Washington Post. CNET  Another possibility is the CES description of its 2021 show (but it was overwhelming and required registration so I stuck with the reviewers). Then for another perspective, CNBC had some show history, way back to the 1960s, while Techcrunch looked far into the future with its flying Cadillac story. Please note that some of today’s “Bottom Line” was in a past econlife post.