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In this article the author considers why it is that so much effort has been expended in designing intelligent systems for home settings and why this effort has been in large part to no avail. The author suggests that one reason has been that what intelligence might be and what an intelligent technology might do in the home has often been modelled on assumptions that are more appropriate for other places and environments. The author shows with evidence from his own research on smart homes, that people turn technology on when they get home so as to switch themselves off, that they use technology, in other words, to make themselves more dumb. The author argues that there should be no surprise in this or shock for the researcher of smart environments: rather recognition of their own everyday and all too often forgotten experience. Yet we argue that in recognising this ordinary fact about everyday lives, new opportunities can be identified for designing systems that, when turned on, do indeed help the user to unwind, to distract themselves, and to play. Having commented on the home of the future, the author then remark that developing a sensibility for home settings can also direct us toward developing a sensibility for other environments where systems can play a more embedded, more `intelligent' role. (13 pages)