Will the Internet of Things be a beneficial addition to our lives - or a blight on society?

RE: Will the Internet of Things be a beneficial addition to our lives - or a blight on society?

mazzmn — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:17:55 GMT

It's a variation of "use the right tool for the job" not sure we need sensors on everything ...but it clearly is an improvement in many many situations...and as DAB says time will tell...sometimes technology even improves itself by stepping backwards...have you ever noticed new microwaves with an analog timer dial...works the best for about 99% of the time

RE: Will the Internet of Things be a beneficial addition to our lives - or a blight on society?

DAB — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:13:15 GMT

I expect the IOT to go through a number of phases.

First, people need to define what things need to be on the IOT, how to control and read data, plus resolve the issues of personal privacy.

Second, we need to get enough devices on the IOT to begin to measure its uses and determine benefits/useless implementations and abuses.

Eventually, everyone will come to a consensus of "Who, What, Where and Why" for the IOT and a stable product bases.

After that, time will tell if it is a fad or a useful addition to our lives.

DAB

RE: Will the Internet of Things be a beneficial addition to our lives - or a blight on society?

gervasi — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 13:59:36 GMT

Yes. When I think about those things from the 80s, such as microwave ovens, direct-dialed long-distance, and personal computers, I notice they're all things that were special and deserved special names and are now integrated into life. We use a personal computer without thinking "I'm going to spend an hour computing." The computer is just there. We warm up lunch in the microwave oven without a second thought. The user manual for the microwave oven I had in the 80s was written from the standpoint you would use the microwave to replace a conventional oven. That didn't happen. But the microwave is there in the kitchen today.

The stuff you're saying about systems crashing also has to do with how many things the system can do. The more any system can do, the greater the risk of failure. It's not just networking that leads to failures.

So I predict the IoT will hold a place like "direct-dialed long-distance" in the future. Only people over a certain age remember when long-distance was billed differently. Only people older than I am remember it being special that you could place a long-distance call directly without operator assistance. I think things being connected will be a fact of life as it is today that I can communicate to someone next door or around the world without much noticeable difference in propagation time and no difference in cost.

RE: Will the Internet of Things be a beneficial addition to our lives - or a blight on society?

johnbeetem — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 22:41:26 GMT

IMO, the Internet of Digital Things (IDioT) is the New Coke[emoticon:6abd1cb2558648488dbea31d006afc59] of the 21st Century. However, it is the latest buzzword so every product for the next 10 years will need to label itself IDioT as a marketing requirement, which will have the effect of making IDioT meaningless.

JMO/YMMV