Privacy.
Simplicity.
Peace of Mind.
The promoters of the Next New Wave in techonology-innovation -- aren't promising you those benefits.
Here's another non-benefit they're trying to downplay:
Its cloud-like lack of Security ...
Rise of connected homes raise security concerns
by Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA Today -- Jan 10, 2015
Analysts say we'll have 50 billion things connected to the Internet within the next five years. Everything will be connected, from your car to your cat, your bathroom to your bike helmet. Sounds cool, right?
But where is all this data going and being stored? When you have cameras everywhere -- including the fridge and bathroom mirror -- who can potentially see you, your kids, your entire life? Who is protecting you in this exploding Internet of Things?
[...]
"New things are scary, without a doubt," Keith Shank, Director of Ericsson North America's Advanced Technology Labs told me from the showroom floor, where the company showed off some of the work they're doing to both detect and stop smart-home security breaches.
"We're working with [other companies] to create a truly secure back-end cloud concept. The cloud isn't just about storage, it's about making secure connections for everyone and everything around you. How do you find when people have breached it? How do you find what data they've breached? How do you keep that breach from happening again? We have to have the security, we have to have the knowledge of how to fix things. For people to trust new technology, they need to be able to know it's safe and secure for their use."
[...]
Is a 24/7, surveil-me-anywhere world -- really the kind of place we would create for ourselves ... if only the "designers" of this brave new tech-ocracy ...
would ask us?
It looks like were about to find out. Soon my TV will sound the alert warning, every time I might nod-off to its incessant droning ...
How convenient! ... for them. The providers of 'things' ...
Here are a few more things the "Internet of Things" won't give you:
Skills.
Self-reliance.
Complete Safety and Security.
The Threat of EMP
How likely is a debilitating electromagnetic pulse, anyway?
by Patrick J. Kiger, channel.nationalgeographic.com -- 2013
[...]
In doing so, an EMP [electromagnetic pulse] would have the potential to cause a massive blackout that would affect phone systems, electric power transmission, factories the financial system, and transportation. “Depending on the specific characteristics of the attacks, unprecedented cascading failures of our major infrastructures could result,” the commission warned. “In that event, a regional or national recovery would be long and difficult and would seriously degrade the safety and overall viability of our Nation.” The commission added, ominously, that “the longer the outage, the more problematic and uncertain the recovery will be.
[...]
But even if we’re not attacked by an enemy, there’s also the possibility that a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse could occur naturally, triggered by a severe solar flare. In 1989, for example, solar weather caused the collapse of northeastern Canada’s Hydro-Quebec power grid within 90 seconds, leaving millions of people without electricity for nine hours, according to a National Research Council report. In fact, Yousef Butt, a scientist at Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, wrote in a 2010 article in the online journal Space Review that the risk of EMP from a solar storm is greater than that from an intentional attack.
Haven't we been 'Googlized' enough?
Instead of remembering facts, we now just simply 'Look them up' -- whenever we need them.
How convenient! ... for them. The providers of 'facts' ...
When someday soon, after we've wired-up all the "things" in our lives ... will anyone stop to ask: "Has this really made our lives that much safer, simpler, anymore secure?"
OR will we just adapt to the "inevitable" wave of gadgets and gizmos, that nobody even knew they wanted or needed. Until one day we wake up and realize -- that in our 'super-connected' lives -- we just can't 'survive' without all the 'stuff'.
Will we even realize by then, that modern life would no longer function without their brave new 'security-cloud' -- that now envelopes us ...
In the most unlikely case, that the events of 1989 ever conspire to 'strike us' again, but this time with an even more direct blast of its chip-frying glare?
What then? Will the Internet of Things protect us then ... WHAT will the 'providers' of such things, have to promote to us then ... besides "Crickets."