The Internet of things! then what?

In the age of Taylorism, automation and industrial rationalisation of the 1970s, the Human Centred movement was concerned with ‘skill’ gaps being created by deskilling through the use of computer-controlled machines that almost stole the skill of the best workers and deskilled those who followed ‘preordained’-Tayloristic routines. With the rise of the expert system in the 1980s, these concerns shifted to ‘knowledge’, where knowledge of the expert was being explicated, objectified and turned into logical rules; cognitive models of mind raised the spectre of the demise of common sense and diminution of the tacit dimension. From the 1990s onwards, with the rise of the Internet, neural networks and genetic algorithms, we became aware of the potential of intelligent applications in robotics, medicine, business, finance and consequently the ethical implications of these technological innovations. Now in the era of ubiquitous technology, with big data and the Internet of things, we ponder on how we have allowed ourselves to be led, and our world to be transformed, by the rise of big data mountain, connected to the internet, monitored and directed by computational algorithms, and built upon quantifying and measuring what we know, thereby leaving very little room for uncertainty, ambiguity, anticipation and reflection on known unknowns or unknown knowns. Then what? One wonders what will happen to us in the digitised world if we end up excluding the human from the human–machine–human cycle? More importantly, what is it all for? What is the purpose and whose purpose does the Internet of Things serve? We are being led to believe that the ‘Internet of things’ is going to change the quality of our lives. It is just a matter of time before our gadgets and services in the home, at work, in our surroundings, and including our physical being, will be connected to the Internet, continuously monitoring, directing, modifying and adapting our relationships to the physical world including our movements, our well-being, our interactions and relationships. It is suggested that wireless sensor systems would monitor food from production to harvest and consumption; the Internet of Things will help us live longer, create businesses that are more productive and profitable, and develop methods to save our planet. Since the Internet is already changing your life on multiple levels, including healthcare, safety, business, energy efficiency and overall quality of life, the Internet of Things is being propagated as a natural step in the continuing march of technology. Whilst there may exist some exciting possibilities for Internet-connected objects, there is concern as to how we can cope with the risks and crises that accompany and result from them. Although there is talk of designing smart devices for preserving our core rights to privacy and security, there is also an awareness that ‘it is rare for technology to entirely solve the challenges which technology creates, so we need new privacy laws that are savvy and wise. In ‘Sales Pitches From Your Refrigerator’, Ryan Calo says that, ‘ultimately, we need to think comprehensively about the impact of new technology on a range of values, and head off efforts to turn our appliances into salespeople’. Aleecia M. McDonald in ‘Better Engineering, and Better Laws’, says that ‘most people want what a datadriven future can provide, but we have learned the hard K. S. Gill (&) Professor Emeritus, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK e-mail: kgillbton@yahoo.co.uk