ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 2: Our digital future
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noted, “Devices will more and
more have their own patterns of
communication, their own ‘social
networks’, which they use to share and
aggregate information, and undertake
automatic control and activation.
More and more, humans will be in a
world in which decisions are being
made by an active set of cooperating
devices. The Internet (and computer-
mediated communication in general)
will become more pervasive but less
explicit and visible. It will, to some
extent, blend into the background of
all we do.”
Joe Touch, director at the University
of Southern California’s Information
Sciences Institute, predicted, “The
Internet will shift from the placewe find
cat videos to a background capability
that will be a seamless part of how we
live our everyday lives. We won’t think
about ‘going online’ or ‘looking on the
Internet’ for something – we’ll just be
online, and just look.”
2) The spread of the
Internet will enhance global
connectivity that fosters more
planetary relationships and
less ignorance.
Bryan Alexander, senior fellow
at the National Institute for
Technology in Liberal Education,
wrote, “It will be a world more
integrated than ever before. We will
see more planetary friendships,
rivalries, romances, work teams,
study groups and collaborations.”
Paul Jones, a professor at the
University of North Carolina and
founder of ibiblio.org, responded,
“Television let us see the Global
Village, but the Internet let us be
actual Villagers.”
Tim Bray, an active participant
in the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) and technology
industry veteran, noted, “I expect
the miasma of myth and ignorance
and conspiracy theory to recede
to dark corners of the discourse
of civilisation, where nice people
don’t go. The change in the
emotional landscape conferred by
people being able to communicate
very cheaply irrespective of
geography is still only dimly
understood.”
3) The Internet of Things,
artificial intelligence and big
data will make people more
aware of their world and their
own behaviour.
Patrick Tucker, author of
The Naked
Future: What Happens In a World
That Anticipates Your Every Move?
,
wrote, “When the cost of collecting
information on virtually every
interaction falls to zero, the insights
that we gain from our activity, in the
context of the activity of others, will
fundamentally change the way we
relate to one another, to institutions,
and with the future itself. We will
become far more knowledgeable
about the consequences of our
actions; we will edit our behaviour
more quickly and intelligently.”
Judith Donath, a fellow at Harvard
University’s Berkman Center for
Internet and Society, responded,
“We’ll have a picture of how someone
has spent their time, the depth of their
commitment to their hobbies, causes,
friends and family. This will change
how we think about people, how we
establish trust, how we negotiate
change, failure and success.”
4) Augmented reality and
wearable devices will be
implemented to monitor and
give quick feedback on daily
life, especially tied to personal
health.
Daren C. Brabham, a professor
at the Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism,
University of Southern California,
predicted, “We will grow accustomed
to seeing the world through multiple
data layers. This will change a lot
of social practices, such as dating,
job interviewing and professional
networking and gaming, as well as
policing and espionage.”
Aron Roberts, software developer
at the University of California-
Berkeley, said, “We may well see
wearable devices and/or home and
workplace sensors that can help
us make ongoing lifestyle changes
and provide early detection for
disease risks, not just disease. We
may literally be able to adjust both
medications and lifestyle changes
on a day-by-day basis or even an
hour-by-hour basis, thus enormously
magnifying the effectiveness of an
ever more understaffed medical
delivery system.”
5) Political awareness and action
will be facilitated and more
peaceful change and public
uprisings like the Arab Spring will
emerge.
RuiCorreia,directorofNetdayNamibia,
a non-profit supporting innovations in
information technology for education
and development, wrote, “With
mobile technologies and information-
sharing apps becoming ubiquitous,
we can expect some significant
improvement in the awareness of
otherwise illiterate and ill-informed
rural populations to opportunities
missed out by manipulative and
corrupt governments. Like the Arab
Spring, we can expect more and more
uprisings to take place as people
become more informed and able to
communicate their concerns.”
Nicole Ellison, an associate professor
in the School of Information at the
University of Michigan, predicted,
“As more of the global population
comes online, there will be increased
awareness of the massive disparities
in access to healthcare, clear water,
education, food, and human rights.”
6) The spread of the ‘Ubernet’ will
diminish the meaning of borders,
and new ‘nations’ of those with
shared interests may emerge
and exist beyond the capacity of
current nation-states to control.
David Hughes, an Internet pioneer,
who from 1972 worked in individual
to/from digital telecommunications,
responded, “All 7-plus billion humans
on this planet will sooner or later be
‘connected’ to each other and fixed
destinations, via theUber(not Inter)net.
That can lead to the diminished power
over people’s lives within nation-
states. When every person on this
planet can reach, and communicate
two-way, with every other person on
this planet, the power of nation-states
to control every human inside its
geographic boundaries may start to
diminish.”
JP Rangaswami, chief scientist for
Salesforce.com, observed, “The
problems that humanity now faces
are problems that can’t be contained
