Internet of Everything
Change brings opportunity, opportunity brings profit

Check out the excellent post here on what is next for the Internet of Everything at PurpleWifi.

In the US, there is a fear that technology is eroding our civil liberties and powerful forces are at work trying to stifle innovation. Soon we will see that small countries, with more progressive societies and legislatures with a willingness to do something, will start to pull away from the US and Northern Europe in the Internet of Everything (IoE).

The IoE is changing how we see the world and interact with it. It continues to improve our lives and makes possible our wildest dreams.

Where there is change there is opportunity, where there is opportunity there is profit.

Far from infringing our civil liberties the IoE give us unprecedented access to information making it possible for us to choose a path in life that is both more fulfilling and more productive. Our ability to be more informed about the politics and the economics that govern our lives is unprecedented. And it will get more so.

There will be some change that people will resist. Full employment may be something we have to forget as a goal. Wealth may have to be redefined and redistributed so our societies can grow culturally, artistically and educationally instead of materially. Contribution to society may have to be measured in new ways that are not based on currencies.

Every walk of life (and even death) already has an app. In the IoE these apps join forces and assist each other in their tasks. The boundaries of the Internet expand to embrace more of our lives. Even the parts of our lives we thought were devoid of technology.

In the kitchen the refrigerator and the pantry will talk to doctor’s office and will recommend the dinner menu based on what ingredients are available and what the doctor has to say about one’s dietary needs. The fridge and the pantry will collaborate and order the food to be delivered so that we never again run out of milk. The oven will pre-heat in time for your arrival home which it will calculate by tracking your location on your commute. By reviewing your calendar the kitchen will know when Aunt May is coming to stay and order in her gluten-free flour and special brand of syrup for the pancakes she always makes. Even the dogs will be fed when your working late without you needing to worry. Irregularities in water and electrical consumption will be monitored and the plumber and electrician called before an appliance fails. When you hold a dinner party the menu planning app will know about everyone attending and their food preferences and allergy concerns.

Even politics is at risk. National boundaries, especially in Europe, are almost meaningless today. National governments provide a 19th century, centralized solution to the needs of a society where communication was slow and the population largely uneducated. In the 21st century communication is instant and all the world’s knowledge is in the palm of our hand. Why do we still insist on these arbitrary lines on maps that do not reflect who we are but who we were. Why do we need representative government when we can all vote by phone on the issues of the day as they happen? Why do we continue to place our faith in politicians who spend half of their time running for election and the half of their time raising the money to run for election. When do they ever do the business of the state. All politics is local, said Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House, in the future that can be literally true.

Basques can vote on Basque issues, Kurds on Kurdish ones irrespective of what the lines on the map say.

What will politicians do when the influence money is channeled to the voters instead? Will lobbyists be another anachronism that we look back at with nostalgia?

More nostalgia tomorrow.