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PRONETS BLOG
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Tuesday Tech Tip, August 13th |
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Tuesday, 13 August 2013 16:02 |
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What is the purpose of the Internet?
If we think about the Internet trying to organically correct itself, we might consider: for what purpose? What is the purpose of the Internet and what elements are important to its function. Primarily, it collects, stores, and disseminates data for a multitude of users. It stands to reason, serving a human’s informational needs is its raison d’etre. However, it is also serving the machines and devices we as humans use.
Consider the android application that controls the android toilet. (Yes, for $2300 there is such a thing.) You can keep yourself Bluetooth connected and hands free of the lid and flusher. If that’s not enough, this thing has built in speakers to play your music. But for every strange device the internet connects together, there is always the reality check. Like what would malware on your phone do to this toilet?!? I get it, you are probably not interested in a remote controlled toilet but, you are interested in your kids, right? Chances are you are taking a multitude of pictures of your grandkids, your nieces and nephews, or your best friends’ set of cuties. As one of my dear clients points out, you might want to check out what kind of data is being stored on those pictures and what devious minds can do with it. http://www.youtube.com/embed/N2vARzvWxwY?rel=0
It is becoming more standard to have a built in map application within our cars to download driving instructions for our journey. Hooking up a steering system to that information has already been successful, and Google’s hands free car has logged enough hours that testing is occurring live on the streets of Nevada. RC cars can be controlled by phones, and friendly hackers are currently exploiting the computer systems of today’s modern car models, http://www.scmagazine.com/car-hackers-appearance-on-the-today-show-was-important-because-they-were-on-the-today-show/article/305023/
Today we are setting our thermostat, security system, and lights remotely because of that big organism called the Internet. We can track our pets, check out security cameras, and post our pictures all in one session. In one night, we can program what we want to watch on television, research who we would like to date, then tunnel into our work computer to get some work done.
It helps to consider what expectations are growing and changing in response to the newest inventions within technology before investing in your business. Once you consider what people will come to accept, you know how to invest. Most likely, you will be using some sort of Internet technology to do that investing…and hopefully that Internet organism intends to protect its more valuable asset: you. |
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Tuesday Tech Tip July 30 |
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Tuesday, 30 July 2013 10:44 |
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The Living Internet?
Part of anticipating the best strategic decision you can make for your network is anticipating the future inventions that can/will impact the way business is conducted. I like to think big, sci-fi big, and then scale down to the latest and greatest. By using my imagination to see the big picture, I can usually discern what is a fad and what is on its way to changing our lives forever. My favorite big picture topic right now is the Internet as an organism.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an organism as “a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements whose relations and properties are largely determined by their function in the whole”. As a vast collection of information residing on a multitude of servers, the browsers we use actually fetch and retrieve information much like a human mind. Biology Online goes further to explain an organism as “an individual living thing that can react to stimuli, reproduce, grow, and maintain homeostasis.” Moore’s Law says that this year, 2013, semi-conductor growth will slow to double only every three years, meaning computational power has a somewhat predictable rate of growth and reproduction, while the Internet reacts to human stimuli - accessing it’s cells, or servers, to retrieve/duplicate information. It’s pretty basic, but it converts the concept of the Internet from highway to organism in a meaningful way.
Let’s factor in artificial intelligence specifically when a complex system begins to understand it possesses information to organize, and can acknowledge its own capacity to restructure itself to respond to its own environment. In fact the fastest supercomputer in the world has officially surpassed the human brain’s processing capabilities. This computer requires far more power to run its processor than our mere 20 watts (9.9 million watts to be exact) and takes up a lot of physical space in comparison. Some futurists think the Internet will become self-aware within the next decade, meaning autonomously capable of addressing its own needs and deficiencies. This awareness should not be confused with self-consciousness; instead it is capable of developing survival instincts to adapt to its own environment.
We still have the ability to create, not just organize. We have the ability to imagine and question, not just recall answers. Nonetheless, should the day come when the Internet realizes it exists, what will we want to invent next? It thinks, therefore I am doing what? |
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