things of the future : from The Internet of Actual Things

[Mark Kohut]

Your light bulbs will narrate their agonizing deaths.
“I have 10 reliable activations remaining,” your bulb will report via some ridiculous light-bulbs app on your phone. “Now just nine. Remember me when I’m gone.”
The next night: “Now eight. I can still remember being back in the factory. The daylight streaming through the windows. Daylight was my muse. My inspiration.”
When the day comes and the bulb goes pop, you’ll get an actual letter in the actual mail, printed on paper.
“If you’re reading this letter, it means I’ve passed on to the other side, into the valley of perpetual brightness,” your light bulb will tell you, posthumously. “Your downstairs cupboard is now dull and dim. Please recycle me responsibly.”
The rest of the bulbs in the house will dim themselves automatically. That’s how light bulbs mourn.
The letter will go on: “The good news is, the light at the end of the tunnel is a friend of mine from Shenzhen. He says things aren’t so bad. So you know, I dictated this over the home network to your dog’s leash. It promised to pass this letter on to the post office network next time you take it for a walk in that direction, and some of the leash’s envelope friends will make sure it gets printed and properly posted to you.”
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