IoT: Your thought and views

[bennyboy]

But overall, I think that given a healthy system of governance, more information connectivity will represent a benefit more than a detriment.

Pie in the sky optimism isn't a sound basis for social policy.

The internet itself is a good case study.  We are definitely subject to more potential scrutiny and a loss of privacy.  We are probably being manipulated in ways too subtle for us to notice or understand already.  In return, I get free porn, cheap games, a way to learn about almost anything under the sun, and these here forums.

If I'm plugged into this system several hours a day, does it really concern me that my car is, too, or my toaster?  Not too much.

Here's my dream.  I navigate to a highway.  I press autopilot, search Netflix for a new movie, and dim my windows.  My car, communicating with satellite and every other vehicle on the road, finds the optimal path and speed in order to minimize congestion.  Everyone else's car is doing the same thing-- no tailgating, no lane-dodging, no crossing 4 lanes of traffic because Junior has to throw up.  As I approach my destination, my car automatically confirms my hotel reservation, and uses AI and preset info to choose my dinner menu for me.

What am I giving up?  Somewhere, out there, somebody knows what I keep ordering for dinner.  They know what times I travel, what kinds of hotel I frequent, and maybe they can use logistics to infer that girls known to frequent red-light areas also tend to show up after I check in.  There's dirt in that data.

But overall, I'm okay with that.  So far in my life, technology has done nothing but open up more of the world to me; it has given me comfort, entertainment, pleasure, and facilitated my participation in the world. The availability of porn in particular has surprised me. It's not an accident that there's so much of it, and that it is almost never challenged by the government-- they WANT me home and happy and out from underfoot, rather than meeting bearded strangers in dark-lit basements. As far as I'm concerned, it's a deal!

I don't think it's "pie in the sky" to expect things to go more as they have already gone.