Hmmmmmmmm... so here we are at the very last topic of DIGC202. The Internet of Things.
I've been pretty unsure about this advancement, to be honest. I am a bit of a dystopic novel fan and have read into so many ways where this kind of thing can go wrong that I really just don't know if the benefits are going to outweigh the consequences.
So firstly, for those who have not yet caught up - What is this phenomenon I'm talking about? Well - check out this video from Ericsson. "Ericsson believes that in the Networked Society, more than 50 billion things will be connected, in order to make our lives and our businesses more efficient and more enjoyable."
The connecting of everything to the internet will have pretty damn crazy changes in how we interact with our environment as well as how we live our lives. Everyone who has so far blogged about it sees it as a good thing and I guess so far, it hasn't been so bad. Cars with automatic window wipers, fridges that beep if you forget to close them for too long and the weird "siri" thing on the new iPhone S. It does look like the world is heading that way.
It seems so funny to me that we would want to give ordinary objects the ability to "think" and "communicate" with us. We're talking pretty extreme when you can have an MSN conversation with your HOUSE! Still, it's an interesting thing.
Some consequences:
- Unpredictability of the Internet at the best of times. We have pretty horrible internet connection as it is... I mean it probably is just because we live in Australia, but we all know how unstable the internet can be. The issues we had during group presentations on Prezi are an example of this. Like Schumpeter says, "surely it makes little sense to entrust everything from our health care to our ovens to a technology that can easily crash. We are trying to run before we can walk." We really SHOULD be working on getting consistent and stable internet connection globally before connecting everything in the world to it.
- No more Privacy. Well, the interconnection between social networking, privacy, surveillance and power was the topic behind my major project presentation. So I have some pretty big opinions on this. Not only will the big companies and governments be able to have even MORE access to collecting information on us but commercially, businesses will know everything we do, all of our buying and living habits and use this to tailor their ads to us - Minority Report style~! Not just companies though - but amongst ourselves... we will have even more chance to monitor everyone all the time. Stalking is becoming the norm....
We are rapidly proceeding to a point where the range of data being collected can literally be used to reconstruct a person’s life. The privacy issues brought about by the Internet of Things will make concerns about our interactions on social media giants such as Facebook seem trivial by comparison. David Glance
- Our increasing reliance on technology I dunno about you, but I personally quite like to do things for myself. I am an independent person and I like to have an aspect of control in what I do. Probably why I am a PC person and not Apple. (haha ho ho) As I have said in a few comments on other people's blogs, I have not got a problem with winding down my own windows of my car (I actually prefer it) and I don't need the car to turn the headlights on when it's dark... I'm pretty sure I already know when it is dark. I already have been rather concerned because my actual handwriting has gotten rather rubbish seeing as I now type everything. I just can't help but wonder, why it is necessary for us to be so lazy? Is it really necessary for us to merely exist and have all of the objects around us do everything for us while we stand there like babbling idiots?
It kinda makes me think, no wonder in all the dystopic films/novels - the objects/machines end up revolting and rising up to take control; because we will have become idiotic mindless people who can't do anything anymore.
I know it sounds exaggerated but seriously! I just don't see the point really.
Sure, universal connectivity means the ability to act on improvements in health, food, production in a way we never thought possible. But on the other side, there is so much at stake! I just don't know....
3 comments:
Interesting point about the increasing reliance on technology and the privacy, but they do lead me to ask a couple of questions (I like playing the devils advocate every now and then)
Firstly – While we may not be entirely comfortable with the loss of privacy that this technology offers, what about the next generation who will grow up in that environment and won’t know any alternative? For them what we may see as a heinous violation of our rights and freedoms they may see as the only way to function, much like teenagers now see facebook (or another equivalent) as the only tool for interacting with friends. We may pass away concerned about the risks they face but as long as nothing bad happens on a large scale they won’t care.
The second part of increasing reliance on technology and I agree with you in that we are relying on it far too much as is but is there any way we can stop it now? For example if I had no internet and no computer throughout my life I can guarantee that I would be a completely different person (most of my free time is computer related stuff). If we still used paper filing for our administration work it would require a completely different structure to what we have now, if indeed most businesses could survive it. So for this to say that technology will lead us to our downfall I don’t think is quite right, as despite all the new advances we have that make work easier we’re still at the office for the same amount of hours.
However on the flip side you may be right in terms of how easy it is for it to become dystopic as not only will machines be in the perfect position for people to be overthrown, but also if all the machines just stopped working one day I don’t see how humanity could survive that if we become any more dependent on technology.
Your last point is something I have thought about ever since the lecture. Why are people so happy to rely on technology now? It is so easy to have ones network disconnected or hacked and then all hell can break lose.
It is the same reason I do not like cloud systems in that you must always be connected in order to access it. I'm guessing in the future there won't be any such thing as a camping trip since there is such bad reception?
Yeah my grandma is always rabbiting on about how "back in my day, we had to remember phone numbers and directions now day you lot just put it in your phones" Suppose she has a point, that the need to remember stuff is decreasing every day. They say if you don’t use it, you lose it? It is a scary thought that we are becoming so reliant on technology. I agree even one day without all forms of communications would bring utter turmoil. ha
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