A Focused Survey on Technology: From Hypocaust to Smart Appliances

It is difficult to determine exactly when smartness came to be of interest for humans the first time, but it can be hypothesized that this interest is almost genetically anchored in humans. What is clear is that smartness in general and smart enhancements for living environments in particular are not an invention of the present. This is shown, for example, in the excerpt from Aristotle’s politics that opened Chap. 1 Technology-based smartness for the living context was already available in the ancient world. For example, consider the smartness of systems to improve public health (canalisation), to enhance comfort (hypocaust heating, bagdirs), and even to serve as a form of entertainment. The last is seen on, for example, inventions that are attributed to Heron of Alexandria (called mechanicus) (Papadopoulos, Heron of Alexandria (c. 1085 AD). In: Distinguished figures in mechanism and machine science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 217–245, 2007), who probably lived in the first century B.C. The following figure shows an example of smart technology that was in operation when Heron lived. It is a smart heating system used in ancient Korea that I had the chance to see during a visit to Seoul in 2010. The ondol constitutes a predecessor of modern waste heat utilization, intelligently re-using the heat that is produced when cooking (Fig. 4.1)