Researching future technology was an interesting task, especially
when I came across a website titled “10 Nightmare Scenarios from the Internet
of Things”. This website had different
scenarios such as robots taking over the world, Google glass privacy issues, stalking
techniques used through your phone, drones causing chaos by shipping illegal
orders to your house, your self-driving car turning into “Christine” the killer
car from the 1983 movie, etc.
Now
remember, these seemed a bit outlandish and scary but were at the same time
believable to some extent. #3 on their
list caught my attention. It was called
“Grosse Point Blackout” and talked about a hitman and the options he could
offer to take someone down. The dialogue
went something like this: “’So you’ll do
it? You’ll take the job?’ The man
glances around the bar before replying.
‘You want it to look like an accident, right? No problem.
I can do tire blowouts, brakes—and not the old-school detectable cuts,
either, I can hack them. Does he have a
bad ticker? Sugar problems, maybe? That would be primo. Pacemakers are easy to hack; insulin pumps
aren’t much harder. Anyway, all doable,
no physical evidence. Everything talks
to everything else these days. But it’s
going to cost’”
Now wait a
minute—someone can hack into a pacemaker or insulin pump?! I wear an insulin pump, and I rely on it to
save my life—literally! The thought of someone being able to mess with
the settings on my pump is extremely unnerving to me. I really work to monitor my diabetes with
blood sugar testing and the functions my pump performs. Going to sleep at night and hoping for the
best is sometimes scary enough in itself.
The thought of someone being able to take my life by hacking is crazy….and
yet doable?!
Writing about technology that can potentially hack into
pacemaker and insulin pump settings, control most devices, connect all gadgets
to speak the same language electronically would definitely affect social
media. We have technology that enables
‘smart’ devices to talk to each other.
For example: Imagine having a
home that tracks everywhere you go through your vehicle, then automatically
heats up to your preferred temperature before you get home?
These things may seem either really cool or
really creepy to you, depending on how you feel about it. Many regular objects around us are being
created to connect to networks, communicating with mobile devices and each
other to form what’s being called an “Internet of Things”, or IoT. Many ‘smart’ creations are being devised;
homes, cars, clothing, factories, electronic gadgets, (pacemakers / insulin
pumps), and pretty much anything else you can imagine!
Here’s the problem: Most
‘Internet of Things’ have struggled with wireless issues and brands.
Many products can communicate with their own apps, but haven’t found a
way to communicate with other company’s products. It’s just a matter of time---it will
happen!
A company called
“Qualcomm” is working on a project to link all pieces. Its platform, called AllJoyn, could act as a universal
translator for the industry. Their goal
is to connect devices from different manufacturers. The only way this will work is if companies
all over the world are willing to cooperate and work with other brands, i.e.
their competitors.
How will this affect social media? How could it NOT may be a better question to
pose? If all our devices are linked
according to where we are, what we are doing, etc. our social media platforms
will also be reflecting these locations, activities and adjusting automatically
to our every whim, and even thought.
(Locations are already in existence on our phones, but technology to
communicate with our devices using brain waves is being worked on as we speak!) Who knows, maybe social media will reflect
what is on our mind? Now THAT is a
really scary thought!
