What if all cars had the GPS (standard in all cars by now surely) hooked into the speedometer so that you can’t go faster than an acceptable limit for that stretch of road? This poses difficulties if you need to overtake or are in a particular rush, but I assume it is just these types of speeding that cause accidents in the first place.

Or a woman.

Or a hair dryer.

Imagine using the touch-screen display to browse through your database of favourite recipes, search by cuisine type or surf your favourite recipe website. When you find a recipe that you like the fridge inventory can tell you if you have the required ingredients by wirelessly scanning the RFID of all the items in your kitchen. If you need a few things you could order them through you on-line shopping acount, or send the shopping list straight to your printer or handheld.

When you have everything you need you can start cooking. You can read the recipe off the monitor as you go or set it to read out the step-by-step instructions for you (you could even adjust the computer voice to match your own mum’s, complete with attitude!). Alternatively you could just set it to play your favourite .mp3 to cook by. An automatically generated play-list can match the required oven time, letting you know when to check the food or serve it up through changes in tempo or other musical cue. SMS or email alert could also notify you of the cooking progress.

As a house-sharer I always find it hard to keep track of things like who bought the milk and who used the last of it. The database could easily track purchaser’s purchases, prices, quantities and brands to help you divide your funds, keep to a budget or even monitor your diet.