People of the 20th century imagined that Americans of the future, would be zipping around in flying cars and jetpacks. Instead, we’ve got a plummeting life expectancy, the rise of measles, and even a resurgence of concentration camps on U.S. soil.
But if you really want a reminder of just how dumb everything is in 2019, check out this video from GE, which recently went viral on Twitter. GE even had the audacity to call it a “smart” light bulb.
The video’s title alone should scare any normal person who remembers the days when replacing a light bulb was a fairly straightforward affair. They even used to make jokes about changing light bulbs, a measure of how easy something could be. The title on YouTube? “UPDATED: How to: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs.”
Not a great start, GE.
The video shows eleven different movements you have to make in order to reset GE light bulbs running firmware version 2.8. You have to turn the light on for 8 seconds, and off for 2 seconds, repeating that nonsense until you think you’re going insane.
Somehow it only gets more ridiculous from there. Because if your reset didn’t work, it probably means that you’re running on firmware version 2.7 or earlier. And that means you have to jump through an entirely different series of hoops to reset your lights.
When I imagined what the world of 2019 might look like, this absurd light bulb definitely wasn’t in the mix. I don’t even need a jetpack at this point. I’d just love a light bulb that doesn’t need a complicated reboot.