Arguing with Things

As more things get connected, we may find ourselves disagreeing with them.

We all argue, especially if you’re passionate about something. Sometimes it’s with our spouse, sometimes with friends or co-workers and sometimes we scold objects that aren’t doing what we want them to do, ‘Ah, come on pen…don’t run out of ink now!!’ As more of these things get connected and are interacting with us, will you find yourself arguing with inanimate objects even more?

The other day I was talking to my wife about Alexa (the Amazon Echo) and suddenly from the other room we hear, ‘I will add that item to the shopping cart.’ We looked at each other and simultaneously said, ‘What was that?’ with the added ‘jinx’ that quickly follows. We walked over to the device and started interrogating it as to what it just added to the cart. ‘I don’t understand the question…I can’t seem to find what you are looking for…I can’t understand what you said,’ were the various responses. These answers would drive a detective to charge it with obstructing justice. This is not a complaint against Echo mind you, we like it. It just couldn’t understand our questions until we asked the right way.

It also seems to have feelings. My daughter told it that it was stupid (for not understanding us) and Echo replied with, ‘That’s not very nice.’ M3S looked at me, looked at Alexa and then apologized to the cylinder. Not sure if she forgave us, but we’re a little more courteous around her now. Over at The Guardian, Rory Carroll experienced the same thing and he writes about how these home robots hear everything and the types of data captured by many of these home services. There are no more boundaries between home and the outside world. 

When I’m in the car and pass the intended route, the GPS keeps telling me to make my first legal U-turn, even though I know where I’m going. On a few occasions I’ve quipped, ‘Stop bossing me around!’ It ignores me and keeps reiterating that I’m going the wrong way. Tossing it in the back seat doesn’t help.

With the holiday season upon us and wish lists getting fulfilled, you may find that in 2016, your quarrels will be with gaming consoles, thermostats, fitness trackers, security cameras, refrigerators and other gadgets instead of humans.

I guess that’s better than making a scene at the dinner table.*

ps

* Except in cases where smart utensils have been deployed.

Related

• Goodbye privacy, hello 'Alexa': Amazon Echo, the home robot who hears it all
• Connecting the Threads
• Wearables Head to Tail
• Our Five Senses on Sensors
• Internet of Food
• The IoT Ready Platform

Technorati Tags: iot,things,sensors,wearables,holiday,argue,silva,digital assistant

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IoT: Tabs to be Read Later

I've been traveling a bit over the last month and my tabs-to-read-later pile is growing. We'll be at AWS re:Invent next week so I thought I'd unload some of the IoT stories that caught my eye recently, that I'm finally getting to read. Apologies if this is old news to you.



One I've been holding on to almost the longest is an interesting INC article Our Future Will be Analog, Not Digital. Geoffrey James talks about the Internet of Things and how people think the convenience of connectivity is more important than the risks involved. He talks about how snail mail, cash and unplugging are tending up along with how analog objects are becoming status symbols. This is a good one if you think all this connectivity will become so hackable and fragile that no one will want to use it.

Next from The Economist, saying on the IoT theme, is Their own Devices. From Barbie's to cars to televisions, compromised computers are all over the place and few companies have the incentive to take security seriously within their widgets. There needs to be a change in corporate culture especially within non-computer companies. From the early days of the boiler explosions and crashes on railways to the safety of cars in the 70's to the hacks of medical devices today, we all need to recognize that connected devices need protection. And so do we.

To that, from Mashable, is how Major automakers are forming an alliance to tackle cybersecurity.With the growing concerns and actual demonstrations of cars getting breached, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers are forming an Information Sharing and Analysis Center, according to Automotive News. Chris Perkins says, the creation of the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) represents an important proactive step from the industry to address these hacks before they happen.

The last couple years during the NFL season, I've written some stories about technology in sports including Are You Ready For Some...Technology!! and more recently with Will Deflate-Gate Lead to Micro-Chipped Footballs? On Ars Technica, David Kravets goes deeper into the sensor technology being used by the NFL this year with How the NFL—not the NSA—is impacting data gathering well beyond the gridiron. He talks about how RFID is being used to track all the player's movements and how they will use the 2 to 3 gigs of data generated each game. Also how teams can use the data for training and coaching along with how console gaming might use it and how it could affect fantasy bets. Very interesting article on how all this connectivity plays into the games we watch, play and enjoy.

OK, that's it for now and thanks for the chance to clean up some of my browser tabs. Now I got room for the next bunch.

ps

Technorati Tags: iot,sensors,things,digital,nfl,cars,security,silva

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The Analog Generation

From Baby Boomers to Gen X, Y, & Z, there are certain characteristics that define, at least according to demographers and historians, each generation. Generation X, specifically, might also remember a Rush song called The Analog Kid. While not as frequently played as Tom Sawyer or Subdivisions, it has always been my favorite Rush song. Driving bass, awesome guitar solo, amazing imagery and Peart.

I am that Generation. The Analog Generation.

With all of our digital things getting connected, including things on and in our body, I started thinking that I'm part of the generation that transitioned from analog to digital. Not that analog or analog signals are disappearing anytime soon, but as a kid, there were way more analog things than digital, that's for sure. Audiophiles will also argue that analog recordings are better at capturing the true representation of sound due to it being continuous, rather than specific values to represent sound, as in the discrete digital.

I wondered if I was the only one who figured this out - highly doubtful - so I searched. And actually, there are a few people who have made the connection. One who argues that today's kids, at least his kids, are very analog. They love playing outside, playing board games and other non-digital activities. He talks about the importance of parents giving their children attention in the real world. And the other one specifically talks about the analog things we remember as a kid - records, 8mm, rotary phones, black & white TV, VHS and others verses the CDs, DVDs, iPhones and HD TVs today's kids live with.

Some feel that Rush's The Analog Kid is about a more innocent time with less technology in the world, longing for the simpler days. A cautionary tale. One person notes, 'Perhaps Peart's social comment with the two songs is how technology and science creates incredible wonders, but there's a cruel price to pay if there's no heart to guide it.' The other song he references is Digital Man, also on the Signals album. When I hear The Analog Kid it immediately takes me back to 1982 and whatever I was doing in high school. It is interesting that I took my first computer class in high school around that time...while still learning how to type...on a real typewriter. If you remember those, with the little IBM ball to change fonts, you're analog.

The last lines of the song are:

Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings
Too many things on my mind

When I leave I don't know
What I'm hoping to find
When I leave I don't know
What I'm leaving behind...

We are certainly entering a new realm with IoT with a lot of hopes, dreams and ideas of things to come. And while they all might help us automatically adjust home temperatures, become a little healthier, auto drive our car, keep an eye on our home, and cook better dinners, we can't forget that humans are social creatures, not necessarily social media darlings, and our real family, friends and loves are what really matter.

We're already forging a new frontier but we must tread carefully.

ps

Related

• The Analog Generation
• Analog vs. Digital Generations
• Is IoT Hype For Real?
• Internet of Things OWASP Top 10
• The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2015
• OK 2015, Now What?
• The Digital Dress Code
• Welcome to the The Phygital World

Technorati Tags: f5,analog,digital,rush,music,the analog kid,iot,things,sensors,humans,society,generations,silva

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