Beware The Internet of Things

Right now, hordes of fevered scientists around the globe are pulling all-nighter after desperate all-nighter. They haven't changed their clothes for weeks. The walls of their laboratories are speckled with fist-sized craters, each marking a different failure. Their marriages are in ruin, their children strangers to them. And it's all because Back to the Future: Part II was set less than two years from now.

"Damn it, Bob," one jaundiced, coffee-stained boffin is yelling at his semi-comatose colleague. "These people were promised hoverboards. If we don't have a working hoverboard in production by Christmas, there will be riots. These animals will have our heads." Bob shrugs. He's too exhausted to care. He has been at this since 1989. He can't remember what the sky looks like any more. He's going to be torn limb from limb by a mob of strangers furious that science hasn't met the fanciful advances hinted at by popular culture 25 years ago, and he's OK with that.

Ya know, America would probably be well on our way to the future envisioned by the sc-fi guys if socialist politicians in the 60s didn't divert our resources and talents to reducing Americans to 3rd world levels. Done solely for the gain of power released in such a shift.

I really wanted that piece of hardware, until I read about all the installation problems and weird things happening after DIY installs. They have installers to do it for about $125, but the unit's got some 'bugs' which need to be ironed-out. Plus, the fact that some Google founders bought the company, creeps me out. That's just ceding too much domicile control to others, via WiFi. I have an ancient 2006 Nokia 6060 "Clamshell" cellphone; no 'smartphone' and don't want one.

People have been complaining about the NSA spying, and the IoT would be a massive new way for the NSA to find out what people are up to. Not only that, but, Google and MS and Facebood and Twitter and any company that has a vested interest, would all have the means to get at your data and all of the data that the IoT generates.

But, mostly, the IoT is a bunch of hooey. Most people are tired already of so much of their data and privacy being invaded, and most will resist the IoT as just stupid. Not every idea is a good idea, and this IoT is just a dumb one, no matter how many tout is as big as the invention of the wheel, or some such thing. There will be many who are are technically inclined to adopt all new gadgets and technology, but, the majority of people will reject this IoT thing, or in the least, they won’t care to use the tech. It won’t be the first time that a technology will have been rejected.

Now, if the tech was to be connected only internally within a home (or business), and not sending out any signals to the internet and the rest of the world, perhaps the technology stands a better chance of adoption.

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