ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 2: Our digital future
38
by political borders or economic
systems. Traditional structures of
government and governance are
therefore ill-equipped to create the
sensors, the flows, the ability to
recognise patterns, the ability to
identify root causes, the ability to act
on the insights gained, the ability to
do any or all of this at speed, while
workingcollaborativelyacrossborders
and time zones and sociopolitical
systems and cultures. From climate
change to disease control, from
water conservation to nutrition, from
the resolution of immune-system-
weakness conditions to solving the
growing obesity problem, the answer
lies in what the Internet will be in
decades to come. By 2025, we will
have a good idea of its foundations.”
7) The Internet will become ‘the
Internets’ as access, systems
and principles are renegotiated.
David Brin, author and futurist,
responded, “There will be many
Internets. Mesh networks will self-
form and we’ll deputise sub-selves to
dwell in many places.”
Sean Mead, senior director of
strategy and analytics for Interbrand,
predicted, “The Internet will generate
several new related networks. Some
will require verified identification to
access, while others will promise
increased privacy.”
Ian Peter, pioneer Internet activist
and Internet rights advocate, wrote,
“The Internet will fragment. Global
connectivity will continue to exist, but
through a series of separate channels
controlled by a series of separate
protocols. Our use of separate
channels for separate applications
will be necessitated by security
problems, cyber policy of nations
and corporations, and our continued
attempts to find better ways to do
things.”
8) An Internet-enabled revolution
in education will spread more
opportunities, with less money
spent on real estate and teachers.
A generally hopeful summary comes
from Doc Searls, journalist and
director of ProjectVRM at Harvard’s
Berkman Center for Internet and
Society, who observed, “Of course,
there will be bad acting by some,
taking advantage of organisational
vulnerabilities and gaming systems
in other ways. Organisations in the
meantime will continue rationalising
negative externalities, such as we see
today with pollution of the Internet’s
pathways by boundless wasted
advertising messages, and bots
working to game the same business.
But…civilisationdealswithbadacting
through development of manners,
norms, laws and regulations. Expect
all of those to emerge and evolve over
the coming years. But don’t expect
the Internet to go away … Will the
Internet make it possible for our entire
civilization to collapse together, in
one big awful heap? Possibly. But the
Internet has already made it possible
for us to use one of our unique graces
– the ability to share knowledge – for
good, and to a degree never before
possible.”
Less-hopeful theses
9) Dangerous divides between
haves and have-nots may expand,
resulting in resentment and
possible violence.
Oscar Gandy, an emeritus professor
at the Annenberg School, University
of Pennsylvania, explained, “We have
to think seriously about the kinds of
conflicts that will arise in response to
the growing inequality enabled and
amplified by means of networked
transactions that benefit smaller
and smaller segments of the global
population. Social media will facilitate
and amplify the feelings of loss and
abuse. They will also facilitate the
sharing of examples and instructions
about how to challenge, resist and/or
punish what will increasingly come to
be seen as unjust.”
10) Abuses and abusers will
‘evolve and scale’. Human nature
isn’t changing; there’s laziness,
bullying, stalking, stupidity,
pornography, dirty tricks, crime
and those who practise them
have new capacity to make life
miserable for others.
Llewellyn Kriel, CEO and editor in
chief of TopEditor International Media
Services, predicted, “Everything –
every thing – will be available online
with price tags attached. Cyber-
terrorism will become commonplace.
Privacy and confidentiality of any and
all personal will become a thing of
the past. Online ‘diseases’ – mental,
physical, social, addictions (psycho-
cyber drugs) – will affect families and
communities and spread willy-nilly
across borders. The digital divide will
grow and worsen beyond the control
of nations or global organisations
such as the UN. This will increasingly
polarize the planet between haves
and have-nots. Global companies
will exploit this polarization. Digital
criminal networks will become realities
of the new frontiers. Terrorism, both
by organizations and individuals,
will be daily realities. The world will
become less and less safe, and only
personal skills and insights will protect
individuals.”
An antispam and security architect
predicted, “There will be an erosion
of privacy and the use of dirty-tricks
social media will emerge more and
more in election campaigns. Abusers
evolve and scale far more than regular
Internet users.”
A retired management consultant to a
large international corporation wrote,
“There will be greater group-think,
group-speak and mob mentality
… More uninformed individuals will
influence others to the detriment
of standard of living and effective
government.”
11) Pressured by these
changes, governments and
corporations will try to assert
power – and at times succeed
– as they invoke security and
cultural norms.
Paul Babbitt, anassociateprofessor
at Southern Arkansas University,
predicted, “Governments will
become much more effective in
using the Internet as an instrument
of political and social control.
That is, filters will be increasingly
valuable and important, and
effective and useful filters will be
able to charge for their services.
People will be more than happy
to trade the free-wheeling aspect
common to many Internet sites
for more structured and regulated
environments.”
Anoop Ghanwani, a distinguished
engineer at Dell, said, “Regulation
will always stand in the way of
anything significant happening.”
