Machines will take over from humans as the biggest users of the Internet in a brave new world of electronic sensors, smart homes, and tags that track users' movements and habits, the UN's telecommunications agency predicted.
What the report talks about is less a "takeover" and more a parallel use of the Internet.
"Today, in the 2000s, we are heading into a new era of ubiquity, where the 'users' of the Internet will be counted in billions and where humans may become the minority as generators and receivers of traffic," it added.
It's the Internet, not an elevator with a limited occupancy. Improving technology, finding new uses for connecting inanimate things, doesn't reduce the possiblities for its use by people.
The ITU's vision goes further, highlighting refrigerators that independently communicate with grocery stores, washing machines that communicate with clothing, implanted tags with medical equipment and vehicles with stationary or moving objects.
Industrial products would also become increasingly "smart", gaining autonomy and the intelligence thanks to miniaturised but more powerful computing capacity.
"Even particles and 'dust' might be tagged and networked", the ITU said.
If they're worried that technology is moving too quickly they can begin tagging the dust in my house. That ought to slow them down for a century or so.
While the report laid out economic opportunities, a huge expansion of the IT industry and innovation in a wide range of fields from health to entertainment, it also warned of a number of challenges, including privacy issues.
Some of the applications envisaged for emerging RFID tags are to replace human ID documents, track consumer habits, or banknotes.
The ITU said tighter linkages would be needed between those that create the technology and those that use it to cope with its forecast new world.
"In a world increasingly mediated by technology, we must ensure that the human core of our activities remains untouched," the report concluded.
In my opinion, the best way to that end is keeping the Internet in the hands of the tech geeks and out of the UN.
Posted by marybeth at November 21, 2005 03:39 AM Internet