GE developing smart appliances: the future just got a bit less interesting

You know, the future used to be so much cooler before we gave up on our dreams of flying cars. Now instead of powering jet engines, it looks like our automobiles will power household appliances, and household appliances will use technologies like GE's SmartMeter to communicate with the local power grid. This could lead to such sexy contrivances as refrigerators that wait until off-peak hours to run the automatic defrost cycle, and (in coordination with tiered pricing for electricity and some new energy storage options) a bit of relief from the old fossil fuels. Maybe this is not exactly the stuff of William Gibson novels, but to hear more about "Energy Management Enabled Appliances" go ahead and hit that read link.