ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 2: Our digital future
39
12) People will continue –
sometimes grudgingly – to make
tradeoffs favouring convenience
and perceived immediate gains
over privacy; and privacy will be
something only the upscale will
enjoy.
An anonymous respondent wrote,
“Yes, the information we want will
increasingly find its way to us, as
networks learn to accurately predict
our interests and weaknesses. But
that will also tempt us to stop seeking
out knowledge, narrowing our
horizons, even as we delve evermore
deep. The privacy premium may also
be a factor: only the relatively well-off
(and well-educated) will know how to
preserve their privacy in 2025.”
13) Humans and their current
organisations may not respond
quickly enough to challenges
presented by complex networks.
Randy Kluver, an associate professor
of communication at Texas A&M
University, responded, “The most
neglected aspect of the impact is in
the geopolitics of the Internet. There
are very few experts focused on
this, and yet the rise of digital media
promises
significant
disruption
to relations between and among
states. Some of the really important
dimensions include the development
of transnational political actors/
movements, the rise of the virtual
state, the impact of digital diplomacy
efforts, the role of information in
undermining state privilege (think
Wikileaks), and … the development of
cyber-conflict (in both symmetric and
asymmetric forms).”
A librarian shared a quote from Albert
Einstein: “It has become appallingly
clear that our technology has
surpassed our humanity.”
14) Most people are not yet
noticing the profound changes
today’s
communications
networks are already bringing
about; these networks will be
even more disruptive in the
future.
Nishant Shah, visiting professor at the
Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana
University, Germany, observed, “It
is going to systemically change our
understandings of being human,
being social and being political. It is
not merely a tool of enforcing existing
systems; it is a structural change in
the systems that we are used to. And
this means that we are truly going
through a paradigm shift – which is
celebratory for what it brings, but it
also produces great precariousness
because existing structures lose
meaning and valence, and hence, a
newworldorder needs tobe produced
in order to accommodate for these
new modes of being and operation.
The greatest impact of the Internet is
what we are already witnessing, but it
is going to accelerate.”
A summary of the less-hopeful
theses comes from Bob Briscoe,
chief researcher in networking and
infrastructure for British Telecom,
who predicted, “The greatest impacts
of the Internet will continue to be the
side-effects that tower so high that
we do not notice they are continuing
to grow far above us: 1) More people
will lose their grounding in the realities
of life and work, instead considering
those aspects of the world amenable
to expression as information as if they
were the whole world. 2) The scale
of the interactions possible over the
Internet will tempt more and more
people into more interactions than
they are capable of sustaining, which
on average will continue to lead each
interaction to be more superficial.
3) Given there is strong evidence
that people are much more willing to
commit petty crimes against people
and organizations when they have no
face-to-face interaction, the increasing
proportion of human interactions
mediated by the Internet will continue
the trend toward less respect and less
integrity in our relations.”
15) Foresight and accurate
predictions
can
make
a
difference; “The best way to
predict the future is to invent it.”
Robert Cannon, Internet law and
policy expert, wrote, “The Internet,
automation and robotics will disrupt
the economy as we know it. How
will we provide for the humans who
can no longer earn money through
labour? The opportunities are simply
tremendous. Information, the ability
to understand that information, and
the ability to act on that information
will be available ubiquitously … or we
could become a ‘brave new world’
where the Government (or corporate
power) knows everything about
everyone everywhere and every
move can be foreseen, and society is
taken over by the elite with control of
the technology … The good news is
that the technology that promises to
turn our world on its head is also the
technology with which we can build
our new world. It offers an unbridled
ability to collaborate, share and
interact. ‘The best way to predict the
future is to invent it.’ It is a very good
time to start inventing the future.”
Sonigitu Asibong Ekpe, a consultant
with the AgeCare Foundation, a non-
profit organisation, observed, “The
most significant impact of the Internet
is getting us to imagine different paths
that the future may take. These paths
help us to be better prepared for long-
term contingencies; by identifying key
indicators, and amplifying signals of
change, they help us ensure that our
decisions along the way are flexible
enough to accommodate change…
That billions more people are poised
to come online in the emerging
economies seems certain. Yet much
remains uncertain: from who will
have access, how, when, and at
what price to the Internet’s role as an
engine for innovation and the creation
of commercial, social and human
value. As users, industry players
and policymakers, the interplay of
decisions that we make today and
in the near future will determine the
evolution of the Internet and the shape
it takes by 2025, in both intended and
unintended ways. Regardless of how
the future unfolds, the Internet will
evolve in ways we can only begin to
imagine. By allowing ourselves to
explore and rehearse divergent and
plausible futures for the Internet, not
only do we prepare for any future, we
can also help shape it for the better.”
11 March 2014
“Digital Life in 2025” Pew Research
Center, Washington, DC (April, 2014)
digital-life-in-2025/
© Pew Research Center 2016
