07-06 Internet of Things

What exactly are these “Things”? Well, we can start with anything that starts with “smart”, like your smart phone or smart watch but of course the IoT includes any device that is “connected” to the web like home thermostats, security devices and pacemakers.
If fact there is a serious group of Silicon Valley Engineers that wants to create a Smart Human. Essentially they plan to disable our aging mechanisms and embed a set of fancy nanotechnologies which should allow us to live for a thousand years. In fact they believe that some of these smart folks will be walking amongst us very soon! No hubris there.
Imagine if Donald Trump was one of these walking undead? Can we take another thousand years of his tweets and insults? Or worse, CNN with its endless line of expert zombies?
The most famous example of the IoT is the smart car, a serious disruptor. At the last World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was proclaiming that when automobiles became essentially computers on wheels, Israel joined the auto makers. Well, the smart sexy auto bits, not the old steel and rubber bits.
Smart Cars are particularly attractive for R&D since they are so ubiquitous and fundamental to our society. Think of Elon Musk’s magnificent Tesla that runs brilliantly on battery. And soon we’ll hear about the Apple Car. And the Uber Car. Old auto and new auto will form some magnificent partnerships.
At the last Comdex show in Las Vegas, the Mecca for tech heads, I saw some more interesting examples of the IoT. In a large cage there were about 100 tiny drones all randomly flying about avoiding each other and the obstacles in the cage. They start and stop on their “perch”. My son’s immediate reaction before moving on was “well there’s the end of the security business”.
Another crowd pleaser was a robot playing ping-pong. I was in awe at the ability of this ungainly beast to instantaneously position its racquet and deliver the precise blow to the ball. And I noticed this sucker was set to “Low” for puny humans.
The mind boggles at what we’ll come up with next.
Developing a multi-million dollar ping-pong playing robot defies logic unless you imagine the military studying this for obvious applications. And indeed the military is all in with the IoT and has been for years. Just as a smart car will share its experience with its network of other cars so will the new class of weapons and drones. Imagine unmanned sentry towers of tiny weaponry on borders or around sensitive areas. Do we need to invest $100 billion on President Trump’s Wall?
Putting the military aside, there are endless positive uses of these smart connected devices. I always liked Google’s smart glasses, which I believe are making a return. Will they help the visually impaired navigate forward with access to the deep reservoir of information about the path they are taking – just like smart cars? Will we enjoy shopping at stores like those of Amazon Go where there are no lines and no checkout? Just grab and go?
As a tech head I am an evangelist for the IoT and all things new and wonderful. But as an old tech head I’ve seen how new and wonderful can easily be abused with challenging consequences to our privacy and well being.
What if, at some point, we determine that we need these devices to ensure WE do not abuse the technology? Haven’t quite figured out how that might work.