“Eek, Nicole. Time to close the windows!” shrieked Mila.
OK, fine, Mila didn’t shriek. It didn’t say anything at all. Mila is a portly, Wi-Fi-enabled smart air filter sitting in the corner of my bedroom. She—er, it—sent the exclamation as a push notification to my phone and explained more in its app: “The AQI is rising and I can’t keep up.”