A teenage girl wanders into her kitchen one morning. The lights come on automatically as she enters the room and her favorite music begins to play, thanks to the Internet of the future. Invisibly, it follows her every move, anticipating what she will want and need. It accesses the smart watch the girl is wearing, gathering data about her current health including body weight, heart rate, bowel movements, and how much she has exercised and slept lately. It combines this data with knowledge about how various foods have affected the health of everyone else using the Internet and smart watches. Then it speaks through the watch with the voice of a friendly virtual assistant, suggesting yogurt with granola, a healthy and enjoyable breakfast.
After the girl eats, she asks her watch to call a car so she can visit her best friend. The car drives itself. As its sensors scan the surroundings for obstacles, the car also updates its location on a map shared through the Internet with all other cars on the road. Each car knows where all the others are, so they can all plan their routes to avoid traffic or collisions. They also automatically know where parking is allowed and available.
The car stops across from a tree filled with stunning pink flowers. The girl holds up her watch and asks, “What is that?” It again speaks through the watch, informing her it’s a magnolia, and offering suggestions on where she could buy one for her yard and how to plant and care for it. The girl’s friend comes out to meet her – she got an alert from her watch that her friend was approaching.
To teens, the Internet is as invisible and important as the air that they breathe. They rely on it for information, advice, organization, directions, and more . Almost everything they touch and interact with throughout the day connects together thanks to the Internet sharing and combining data. These same objects and systems also learn from this data and use what they learn to make decisions. The Internet has become the world’s mind.
The Internet of Things
Today, we call this the Internet of Things (also called IoT). It can’t yet do everything described in the story above. But within five to ten years, this story may become our reality.
The Internet has come a long way . At the beginning, from 1989 through around 2005, Internet 1.0 was a lot like a library. Institutions used the Internet to provide people with goods and services, just as libraries provide people with books. Users had to visit stationary computers to use the Internet, just as patrons had to drive to a library to takeout a book.
The Internet changed over the next decade due to the rise of social media and mobile technology. Internet 2.0 has been more like a party or other gathering where people easily exchange ideas and opinions with each other. People get information from the Internet instantly, in real time, and also add their own information to the mix. They use the Internet socially and collaboratively. Internet 2.0 enabled a sharing economy to emerge, where people exchange goods and services (such as collectibles, rooms, rides, and odd jobs) directly with each other. Access to this Internet has become a basic human right, according to the UN.
Internet 3.0 is emerging now. It is a lot like a brain. Its eyes and ears are electronic sensors and gadgets that collect data. Its gray matter is the wireless connectivity and the cloud that allow these sensors to share their data in real time. And its ability to think lies in artificial intelligence algorithms that learn from this data and use it to make decisions or take action. Google, Baidu, Facebook, Amazon, and many other Internet companies already learn about their users and turn this information into personalized suggestions. The next step is the semantic web, a system that translates human content into something computers can understand and work with. This has proven very difficult to build, as even the most advanced AI cannot yet understand language or grasp common sense concepts.
Eventually, people will most likely manage to build an Internet that is an intelligent entity that understands humans and our world. (It may not be just one entity; it could be many interconnected entities.) Once this happens, the entity or entities will use their understanding and connections to the gadgets, appliances, and other things in our lives to anticipate our needs and to orchestrate the systems we rely on. Transportation, electricity, the movement of food and products, farming, education, and more – the IoT will be able to manage all of these systems with deeper knowledge and finesse than human experts.
Smart systems that demonstrate the power of combining sensors, connectivity, and real-time data sharing already exist. Some people already use thermostats or lighting systems that learn their habits and automatically adjust to provide heating and cooling or light when needed, then turn off to save energy when they aren’t needed.
Many cities around the world, including Pittsburgh, PA, have deployed smart trash cans. These bins alert sanitation workers when they are full, greatly reducing the amount of time workers have to spend driving around checking and emptying trash cans. In Sydney, Australia and several other cities, smart parking systems use sensors to watch for empty spaces . Meanwhile, mobile apps or digital signs guide drivers to open spaces . In the future, these types of conveniences will become more and more common until it becomes strange and uncomfortable to visit a house or city without them.
Human Relationships
Each stage of Internet history has changed people and our society in fundamental ways.
Our relationships with other people have changed because we no longer have to be in the same space to communicate or share experiences. Of course, people have been able to exchange information remotely since the invention of writing . But books, radio, TV, the Internet 1.0, and other traditional forms of media were expensive to create and usually connected just one expert to the public at a time . On social media, anyone can connect to anyone else. On the negative side, social media harms relationships because people don’t see the full picture of each other’s lives. It’s easier to say hurtful or negative things when you can’t see the other person’s reactions. Positive feedback, such as likes and comments, though, is very addictive. People may neglect real-life connections in order to spend more time on virtual ones.
The emergence of an intelligent Internet of Things will change us in new and surprising ways . In the future, the Internet will continue to impact our relationships with others. As virtual assistants and robotic machines learn to better understand and help people, some of us may turn to them for comfort and support. They may neglect relationships with real people and grow to care for or even love the machines that support them. But the machines most likely won’t feel anything for these humans. These would be one-way relationships . Some experts find this idea disturbing. Sherry Turkle, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says, “Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. ”
On the positive side, though, the future Internet will fill in blank areas of our current digital relationships. Virtual-and mixed-reality technologies will make digital interactions feel more like real-world ones. Our future online interactions may include facial expressions and gestures, which add depth and emotion to real-world conversations. So it may become easier in the future to form and grow real relationships in a virtual space. And even if virtual assistants and robots can’t really feel emotions, the comfort they offer may be real enough for many people who currently don’t have access to a supportive social group, pets, human caregivers, or therapists.
Connecting US Whil e Dividing Us
Online, people already form friendships with strangers that then spill over into real life. Anyone can learn anything through online videos and tutorials, much of it for free. These positive impacts should become even more important and far- reaching as the IoT grows and spreads and becomes more intelligent.
However, the Internet also divides us . Rich and powerful people and nations always have greater access to new technology to make themselves richer and more powerful, often at the expense of poorer people and poorer areas of the world. This unfairness doesn’t go unnoticed. “The anger, hostility, and resentment that will be generated in response to this inequality seem likely to be expressed in ways that will cause great and lasting harm,” predicts Oscar Gandy, a communications expert at the University of Pennsylvania . Protests, social upheaval, or even wars may result. At the same time, aging or elderly people may not be able to keep up with the pace of technological change. They may become marginalized, losing the ability to connect with other people and with society if they are unable to adjust to new technology.
More than Just Me
What makes you who you are? The Internet is changing people’s sense of identity. Thanks to the Internet, you can now find out almost anything you want to know and reach anyone you want to reach instantly. But the reverse is also true. Anyone else can find out anything they want to know and reach you instantly too. You’re almost never alone.
In the past, only famous people had public identities that everyone could access. Now, all of us have public identities that we must manage. When we make social media profiles and posts, we are crafting and broadcasting an identity.
Online identity has its downsides. The content people share online are never completely private and can’t be erased or removed. But the
Internet also makes it possible to experiment with identity, trying on new personas until you find one that fits. But your identity isn’t a single thing. You act differently and expect different responses from others in the classroom, on your soccer team, and in your gaming group and from your parents. Your likes and interests also change over time. The future Internet of Things should recognize and respond to these different personas. “I shouldn’t have to just be me,” says Joe Touch, an expert on network technology. “My presence on the Internet, and the way in which the things around me react to me should be like outfits I can change. ”
Looking to the future, an Internet that has intelligence and understanding could expand human awareness . Experts, including Ray Kurzweil, have predicted a singularity, a point at which humans and intelligent machines merge into a new human- machine hybrid. We may not use the Internet of the future—we may be the Internet. Its senses could become our senses. Its intelligence could become our intelligence. Kurzweil sees this as a positive future. “We’re going to be able to meet the physical needs of all humans . We’re going to expand our minds,” he says.
Privacy and Control
In order to expand your mind, the IoT will have to learn everything about you. Who will have access to this information? Most likely, it won’t belong only to you.
When people exchange privacy and personal information for apps and online tools, they often don’t realize they are being watched closely. Technology is already in the works that can detect the emotions on your face as you react to advertisements or other content. To online companies, your information is gold. They sell it to advertisers or use it to personalize the products, services, and content they offer. Governments want your personal information, too, to deal with the public emergencies and management.
More and more gadgets will collect data about you and track aspects of your life. “Privacy and confidentiality of any personal [information] will become a thing of the past,” predicts Llewellyn Kriel, CEO of TopEditor International Media Services.
New laws like the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe give people more control over their digital information. But laws like this won’t protect everyone. In the future, governments and companies will be able to move beyond watching people and collecting information about their actions. They will also be able to control aspects of people’s lives since they will likely have access to the interconnected gadgets people rely on . The idea behind it is that people’s actions in their daily lives will contribute to a score. And this score will help determine what that person is allowed to buy or where he can go. For example, if the girl had recently committed a crime, a car might not have come when she requested it.
Blockchain technology, which is an important part of cryptocurrency, makes a system like this possible because it tracks every single transaction people make. It could prevent transactions, too. As more and more people switch to cryptocurrencies, social credit systems could spread. The governments say that these systems will protect people. They definitely could. But it could easily oppress and control people, too.
The key to understanding the future of the Internet is recognizing that technology is a tool. The IoT is not good or bad—but people can use it for good or bad purposes. The IoT will make it ever easier for people to connect and support each other, or to exclude and control each other. It’s our responsibility to make the future of the Internet into one that benefits humanity.
