Everything you know about the internet of things is wrong

The internet of things (IoT) is something we’re hearing a lot about right now. It’s at the peak of the hype cycle. We’ve all seen the statistics: estimates of between 25 billion to 50 billion connected objects by 2020 (depending on who you listen to).

That’s a thrilling prospect. The world where our entire physical environment has the ability to exchange data with the internet and other connected objects. The world that’s more convenient, more streamlined, and more responsive to our needs. It’s also a terrifying prospect. A world of ubiquitous surveillance, the world where privacy is no longer a guaranteed right but instead a privilege you must fight for. The possibility of data breaches, backdoors into home systems, vehicles being hacked by shadowy forces, is very real.

It’s easy to misunderstand the IoT because the term itself or even the discussing the phenomenon in isolation is horribly misleading.

Thinking about this in the right way is difficult, because every time we use that ridiculous term, “the internet of things” we distance ourselves from understanding how big the transformation really is. Sure, we need to give it a name. It’s a necessary evil. But in this case not only is the name silly, it’s misleading. Things? No. We’re really talking about the ubiquitous connection of everything, not just inanimate objects, but services, interactive devices, sensors and ultimately, people.

When we’re thinking about the IoT (and yes, I’ll use the damn term) we should really be situating it within the larger context of a global technological flourishing that’s taking place all around us. We’re seeing simultaneous, once-in-a-hundred-years technology revolutions taking place in multiple sectors, from energy and transport to manufacturing, finance and healthcare. It’s the result of an inevitable technological push that’s going to drop humanity into a sea of meshed connections, with mind-blowing consequences.

Hardware is evolving

It’s the democratization of the world of stuff, a flattening out of the manufacturing process

The IoT is a part of something much bigger, something you might call the hardware movement. As John Bruner points out, this movement is making our physical environment accessible in the same way the internet made information and ease of communication accessible to everyone 20 years ago. It’s the democratization of the world of stuff, a flattening out of the manufacturing process that takes the means of production away from large, 20th century style organizations of scale and into the hands of smaller, distributed businesses and individuals.

Bruner says this has been aided in large part by the improvement of software, which allows us to solve many of the things that we used to do with hardware. It wasn’t too long ago that 3D modelling software was only accessible to large corporations and more recently, to smaller businesses. But now these powerful tools are in the hands of anyone with an internet connection and a computer. And of course not only is the software accessible, it’s accompanied by an online cornucopia of free instructions and videos on how to make just about anything.

 It’s also about a change in the way we think stuff should be made.

It’s not just about fancy computers and cheap, ubiquitous DIY either. It’s also about a change in the way we think stuff should be made. For most of the 20th century manufacturing was dominated by companies that were able to operate at scale. That’s still the case in much of the world. But at the innovative edges, technologies like additive manufacturing are giving rise to a new type of enterprise: high functioning, cooperative, point of service companies with fast reaction manufacturing capabilities. Hardware development is becoming an agile operation; smaller and quicker to get products into testing and out for distribution. This goes beyond electronics and touches any industry that produces physical goods.

On the other end of the spectrum we get the maker movement, symptomatic of a more general trend of moving hardware innovation to the edges, to the hobbyists and entrepreneurs. The IoT comes somewhere in between big manufacturing on the one side and the maker movement on the other. And it’s possible not only because of incredible advances in our ability to make hardware, but also because of an exponential improvement in the effectiveness of communications technologies.

We’re getting better at this stuff all the time. A few weeks ago for example, a company called Rockchip made a major leap forward with wifi technology, developing aa combined memory and WiFi system on a chip card that uses 85 percent less energy than standard products. In practical terms that means it’s now possible to create a cheap WiFi compatible object that can run off an AAA battery for 35 years. That’s something which hasn’t been possible until now. Bluetooth has that kind of energy efficiency but it’s an inferior technology compared to WiFi, which has a longer reach and is a standard form of communication in most products. As technologies like this become commonplace they’ll empower manufacturers by allowing them to use smaller batteries, which will help in the effort to make IoT products that people really need.

Less of the same, more of the different

In the technology industry, despite knowing better, we still tend to think that the next wave of innovation is going to look like the last one. We look at the personal computer and mobile phone revolutions, and think “well obviously what we need for the next tech revolution is smaller/better screens.”

We need an IoT bill of rights