Illustration redesigned by Devin Thorpe
Consider, however, this same situation occurring in a so-called “smart” city, where traffic lights, cars, public transportation systems, and even roads are infused with sensors taking in huge amounts of data in real time, then sending that data to automated command-and-control centers. A connected vehicle could presumably, within seconds, signal the location, nature, and severity of a crash to those best fit to help. An ambulance pick-up would be initiated right away, and traffic could be diverted away from the scene allowing the ambulance to move unhindered and to optimize flow for the other drivers in the area. And by the time the ambulance reaches the nearest hospital, awaiting doctors will be privy to any and all relevant information necessary to treat the patient immediately.
This is just one of any number of examples foreseen of how better-connected devices and a smarter cloud could improve our standard of living. However, not all implications of IoT are rosy. Where engineering is concerned, the major barrier to connecting the world’s devices is, naturally, getting them all to speak in a common tongue. We call this the “basket of remotes” problem. Your watch, television, and alarm clock can’t connect with each other…yet, because they’re built by different companies, using different tech, and with little to no concern for third-party integration. While some of the issues are less tech-based and steeped more in corporate proprietary and financial/market concerns, engineers and bodies that set standards and regulations for the industry nonetheless have a significant task lying ahead.
There’s also the matter of IoT security. The fact is hacking is all too easy already and hackers are always honing their skills. Most major companies have been hacked, and thousands upon thousands of computer owners fall victim to malware every day. What could compound the issue more than further connecting devices into larger and larger causal structures? “Pivoting” is the term used for when hackers are able to travel between sectors of a breached network–in other words, compromising point A of a network to get to point B, C, or X. Further connecting our internet may introduce more compromisable points of entry (and more avenues for leveraging those points of entry) to any hacker with the tools, knowledge, and motivation to manipulate our systems.
The future history of the internet of things is yet to be written, but its past history already is. In the late ‘80s, Carnegie Mellon’s Coca-Cola provider halted distribution on the old-style glass bottles, transferring over to new plastic bottles. The old machine could no longer service the new bottle shape, so it had to be replaced. It took a few years but, in 1992, the students were able to get the new machine online, along with the M&M machine nearby.
For the next two decades, that Coke machine remained the pride of CMU’s most innovative individuals. In the early 2000s, three students installed a camera on its face that would broadcast a live feed of a nearby table notorious for being the frequent location of free food. Later, the front of the machine was outfitted with a screen that displayed useful information, like the weather.
In a later interview with IBM, one of the engineers who originally outfitted the Coke machine back in 1982 recalled: “There was a running joke about how your toaster was one day going to be on the Internet. [. . .] People laughed at that.”
Our modern world…it’s quite funny, isn’t it?
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