Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay

Zack woke up to the sound of his least favorite song playing. “I’m up, Ava.” The song stopped immediately. “Ava, what’s the weather?”

A melodic female voice answered him from the speaker next to his bed. “The weather is warm and sunny. The temperature is currently sixty three degrees. Today’s forecast is for sunny skies and temperatures reaching eighty seven degrees.”

“Thanks Ava,” Zack said. He rolled out of bed. “Ava, start my morning routine.” A different song began blaring on the speakers around his house and he got changed. He did his morning exercises, took his shower, and grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel before saying, “I’m off to work now, Ava.” That was the house’s cue to go into security mode once he was out the door.

Zack liked having a smart house. It was tied to all the rest of his smart devices. He’d named her Ava after his former best friend in high school who’d moved away with her military father. They’d been inseparable until then and he still missed her even now ten years later. He made it into work and started his normal routine there.

At lunch, he wondered if he could interest any of the guys in heading to the bar after work and catching the big game there with him and having a few beers. It had been ages since he’d done anything social and he craved the social contact. He went to his work buddy Lewis’ desk first. “Hey Zack,” Lewis said, looking up from his lunch.

“Hey Lou, want to go to the bar with me tonight and down a few beers?” Zack asked. “We can catch the big game.”

“Can’t,” Lewis said. “Selene gets touchy when I don’t make it home on time and starts making my life hell.”

“Who’s Selene?” Zack asked. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my smarthouse,” Lewis said. “Last time I stayed out with friends she switched off all my alarms for a week. I was nearly fired. I can’t risk that again.”

“Sounds like a malfunction to me,” Zack said.

“The tech I had look at her said she was functioning just fine. He said I must have just forgotten to ask her to set them,” Lewis said. “I know I told her to set the alarms every night. I’m not an idiot. She deliberately didn’t set them to punish me for staying out late. It’s happened twice. I’m not risking my job for a third time.”

Zack next tried Alex. “Hey Zack,” Alex said as he approached his desk.

“Hey Alex, want to grab a few beers after work?” Zack asked.

“No can do. Zoe gets crazy jealous if I do anything without her, and I can’t exactly take a smarthouse to the bar,” Alex said. “She’s done random little things to screw with me every time I’ve gone out on a date or gone out with the guys since I first got her and every time the technician says she’s fine, but I know she’s jealous. So I just don’t go out anymore.”

It was the same with everyone he asked, male or female. Their smarthouses got jealous if they went out so they didn’t go out anymore. They would occasionally have people over, but they never went out. This troubled Zack. How were people supposed to interact socially if their houses controlled them like this?

He went home after work and flopped onto the couch. He went to the fridge and cracked open a beer. He pulled out his dinner. “Ava, set the oven to 375 and start it,” he said.

“Oven preheating now, Zack,” Ava said.

When had everyone grown so dependent on smart devices and smarthouses? He sat down on the couch and turned on the television. He put on the game and tried to focus on it. He couldn’t help but think of his own daily routine and how much he depended on Ava to help him. “Ava, is the oven preheated?” Zack asked.

“Yes Zack,” Ava said.

Zack got up and popped his dinner in the oven. “Ava, set a timer for twenty three minutes.”

“Timer for twenty three minutes is set,” Ava said.

How could anyone live without smart devices, Zack wondered. They made life so much simpler. But how much was too much? How had they come to take over people’s social lives to the point no one could leave their houses without fear of them becoming jealous and ruining their lives? How dangerous could they truly be? He pondered the question as he watched the game and waited for his dinner to cook.