Ryan Rose’s washing machine ( @pimpy3wash ) and Mr. Cloutier’s excellent implementation with his TiVo are fun, interesting examples of what can be done today – but the implications are profound.

In order to answer your question “Am I missing something?” I only have “long format” references to cite.

One being, of course, Professor Gelernter’s book Mirror Worlds, specifically what he called “personal information beams”. I encourage you to read this prophetic work and come to your own conclusions.

Another, is Jyri Engeström, who has a PhD in Sociology and is noted for coining the term ‘social objects’ to refer to photos, bookmarks, and other shareable Web content, and his talk at Web and Beyond. I think he explains very well the importance of washing machines and TiVos tweeting.

“Only” an hour long the video of the talk is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiWjAVcWK4g