How will the IoT evolve under the combined pressure of nano- and bio-technology, Big Data and Cloud
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The Internet of Things (IoT) is arriving with startling promises of pervasive and endless connectivity and automation. It envisions a new kind of global physical, digital and virtual infrastructure of devices and entities, which will manage everything for us and also through us, from energy grids and traffic, to medical and financial decision-making processes, to the very texture and nature of our daily life.
The instrumented, interconnected and intelligent IoT scenarios introduce new forms of mediation with ourselves, with others and with our surrounding environments. Our ‘smart things’ are disrupting and will deeply re-define our ways of living, interacting and learning, and accordingly, our notion of what is to be human.
The disembodiment of experience, rationality and agency poses fundamental challenges about the shift of autonomy to the things we interact with and through, such as the degree of operationalization of social and decision-making skills, the transformation of our capacity to choose alternative paths and to adapt to the (unpredictable) unexpected, or the dependency on implicit and undiscussed values embedded in our devices. Some paradoxes are already visible. The very same IoT technologies invoked to fix our problems increase exponentially the level of complexity they are supposed to manage, and the only conceivable solution is to continue to technically optimise our lives.
The promises of improved governance are paradoxically counteracted by forms of digital divides, where those who are knowledgeable, skilled and empowered enough to understand and influence the working of technology will have an advantage over a majority others.