Week 13

The internet of things, the technological utopia. Whatever you call it, it's on its way and no one can stop it. As more and more devices are being entered into cyberspace it is a matter of time before every last thing in your room, outside your room and everything in between will be entering some sore to data into the internet. Although, since this is still in the implementation stage all we can do is speculate how this will benefit us and what the consequences will be.

Lets begin with benefits and they are easy to see. As more things are linked to a network, information on that thing is easily accessible and can be monitored at any time. Even the most inanimate things can hold great deals of useful information. If everything was linked to one network, nothing would get lost, ever. If looking for keys a quick internet search could come back saying: Sock, Shirt and table have all seen keys and they are currently in that location. Instantly i would know that my keys are in my pile of clothes near my table, and just like that my need to think becomes redundant.

With that last point it neatly brings me in to consequences. The first one being that the need to assess any situation or any problem would become redundant. The constant stream of information would mean that we would be demoted to merely following orders than to make individual decisions. Instead of knowing i need new shoes by how they look and feel, i would wait for a message from the shoes to tell me to buy more, until that time they must be fine. Also their is no guarantee that this constant feed of information would go specifically to me. There would be nothing stopping Nike from impleneting this technology so that they would discover every Nike customer's walking habits and adapt their products to suit you i.e. they are watching everything you do. Lastly i cant end this last blog without voicing the potential of a 2001 a Space Odyssey scenario. For those who don't understand click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUMmNl4hk.  I fear the last words I would hear are "I'm sorry Chris, I'm afraid I can't do that"