So as we embark on our very last blogs of the semester, i'm here to rant about the internet of things. I would definitely say that I keep track of all my things online. My phone bill, rent payments, income, social relationships, photos I like, subject outlines etc. The internet of things has all these things accessible only a few clicks away. Sounds like a dream to me. I am not the most organised of people so having everything together in the one place where I know I can't lose it, makes me feel better about life.
Although the internet of things is about uniquely identified objects and their virtual representations in an internet-like structure. I find it to be like a robotic intelligence to think that you could have some sort of relationship with things you own is crazy. Things that have no purpose other then to do the job they were designed to do. The possibilities are endless if you think that your things had a voice and you had a way of easily communicating with them. You would get so much done and be so much more organised.
At first when I thought about the internet of things I was thinking Web 2.0. Then I understood what Bleecker was really suggesting. The idea that our things were all connected to their source. The fridge being connected to the supermarket, a house being connected to the person who lives there etc. The internet and evolving technology has shown me that there a no limits. We just don't know what will come next. So there is no reason to doubt that everyday objects might have the possibility to connect with a range of other things.
The concept is a little daunting to me as I don't understand how technology is able to keep up with our constantly changing society.
Hey Liv, nice post!
ReplyDeleteOh seriously, I understand re: the organising your life bit. The idea of my plants having the capacity to remind me to water them, my cat being able to let me know when she's sick/needs worming or my hair house telling me I've left the hair straightener on sounds amazing.
But I agree that expecting to have a human-like emotive relationship with these objects is crazy. The Ericsson ad shown in the lecture was a bit overly-sentimental in that way and the idea that your car could have it's own social networking site is amazing but equally laughable. Yet it's already happening.
I found an amazing set of papers entitled "Near field reactions to The Internet of Things" which discusses: the ethical design of connected objects, IoT and prosumers, IoT and technology aimed at children and much more. It's a long one and I don't recommend all the articles but "Bootstrapping the Internet" and "Responsible Design of Connected Objects" are well worth the read. Cut and paste the link below to check it out.
http://goo.gl/ZxOzZ
You are right; we do not know what will come next. Innovation and advancements are being created rapidly and I cannot keep up. Before this weeks lecture I was unaware of the Internet of things. It is crazy how a object can interact with the internet such as your example of the fridge being connected to the supermarket. One day in the future we will not need to visit the supermarket or make a grocery list. Our fridge ill do it for us, it will figure out what we need, send a list to the supermarket and next minute our grocery’s will be arriving at our door step. Simple everyday tasks such as this are going to be taken over by technology. There will be no need to the little tasks such as vacuuming, shopping, setting an alarm clock or turning on the aircon. It is unimaginable where ‘the internet of things’ can take us but I don’t think the innovations are too far away.
ReplyDeleteYou say that you "don't understand how technology is able to keep up with our constantly changing society". I actually think it’s the other way around as I don't understand how society is able to keep up with technology. I think that technology is leading the way and society is slowly lagging behind, scampering in an attempt to adapt and integrate practices such as communicating fridges into every day tasks. We need to adapt, and we need to adapt fast.
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