The government's AI super-computing network tracks the Uber self-driving cab, utilizing the next generation of GPS satellites that encircle the planet in high orbit, exactly 1.276 kilometers from your home, as the car seamlessly pulls into the pre-selected slot in the convenience store parking lot.
As you exit the car, the network follows you through the chips embedded in your shoes, clothes, and eyeglasses, the exactly 19.843 meters to the automatic entrance of the shop. A series of high resolution cameras, capable of observing, in minute detail, the pimple you popped on your forehead before leaving your house, atop traffic lights, lamp poles, and the store's surveillance system record your every movement up to the cloud, forever.
The store's internal cameras watch as you head to the cooler, remove a can of Cola Cola, and approach the check-out counter, in real time. There is no cashier, since the store is completely automated. Your purchase is totaled by the counter's built-in laser scanner, and you press the index finger of your right hand against the biometric reader. At the speed of light, your purchase is deducted from your IWA (Individual Wealth Account).
Information is now relayed to retail, manufacturing, and marketing third parties, and health insurance databases.
You re-enter the vehicle, settling into the luxurious full-interior cabin, equipped with multimedia electronics, and an integrated office suite. As you pop open the can of Cola Cola, the exact time is registered. The sliver-thin RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip incorporated into the aluminum shell registers fluid temperature and rate of consumption, and will continue tracking the can until it is recorded at a recycling station.
Welcome to the Internet of Things.
Kevin Ashton, a British visionary, and cofounder and executive director of the Auto-ID Center at MIT, first used the term “Internet of Things” in 1999. Ashton explained:
"If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things - using data they gathered without any help from us - we would be able to track and count everything."
The Internet of Things, abbreviated as IoT, depends on the cloud-computing capacity of the IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), the most recent version of the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.
IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an international, membership-based, non-profit organization, to replace the limited capacity of the current IPv4 system.
IPv6’s huge increase in address space is integral to the Internet of Things. Steve Leibson, a docent at the Computer History Museum, explains: "The address space expansion means that we could assign an IPv6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth, and still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths.”
Essentially, an IP address could be assigned to every plant, animal, person, and product on the planet.
In recent news, Samsung's newest smart TV comes with this cryptic warning:
"Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition."
Samsung's response to criticism regarding privacy issues was, "If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."
This is chillingly reminiscent of Chapter One, paragraph 5, of George Orwell's prophetic 1949 novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four."
"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plate commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time, but at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You have to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."
This eavesdropping capacity by "third parties," namely the government and "Big Data" mining brokers, extends to cellphones, PDAs, and tablets, which can record voices even when turned off, and cameras which can be remotely activated without your knowledge.
Every query asked of Siri and other voice recognition programs, every website visited, every music video, YouTube view, or TV show watched is duly recorded in-perpetuity.
Proponents of the Internet of Things contend that the measurement, collection, and analysis of behavioral statistics can be cross-correlated, and this data could revolutionize the targeted marketing of products and services.
Researchers note that "embedded intelligence" and "AI-oriented" cloud-computing will allow the leveraging of the capacity to collect and analyze the digital traces left by people when interacting with widely deployed smart things to discover knowledge about human life, and environment interaction, as well as social inter-connection and related behaviors.
However, the ACLU cautions, "There’s simply no way to forecast how these immense powers - disproportionately accumulating in the hands of corporations seeking financial advantage and governments craving ever more control - will be used. Chances are Big Data and the Internet of Things will make it harder for us to control our own lives, as we grow increasingly transparent to powerful corporations and government institutions that are becoming more opaque to us."
Further, concerns have been raised that the Internet of Things is being developed rapidly without appropriate consideration of the profound security challenges involved, and the regulatory changes that might be necessary. As the Internet of Things spreads widely, cyber attacks are likely to become an increasing threat.
Joseph Steinberg, who reports on cybersecurity issues for Forbes magazine, wrote in a January, 2014 article, "Internet-connected appliances can already spy on people in their own homes, including televisions, kitchen appliances, cameras, and thermostats. Computer-controlled devices in automobiles such as brakes, engine, locks, hood and truck releases, horn, heat, and dashboard have been shown to be vulnerable to attackers who have access to the onboard network."
An unclassified report from the U.S. National Intelligence Council states that it would be hard to deny "access to networks of sensors and remotely-controlled objects by enemies of the United States, criminals, and mischief makers. An open market for aggregated sensor data could serve the interests of commerce and security no less than it helps criminals and spies identify vulnerable targets."
While the Internet of Things will undoubtedly increase efficiency, reduce waste, improve products and services, and provide convenience, we will no longer maintain individuality. We will have the same value as an empty soda can.
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