I wonder if you ever thought about 'Cloud' – it's gone way past looking up at the sky and seeing pretty patterns. Now, when we talk about Cloud, we think about huge amounts of data stored in remote data banks somewhere out there. I was listening to John Barrett as he talked about 'The Internet of Things.' He says that there's about 4000 exabytes of matter in the Cloud. That's how much it is in terms of size – 4000 exabytes. Very few of us have any understanding of how much that really is, as we think about megabytes, gigabytes and tetrabytes. Barrett helps us understand. He says, "Think of a stack of books from here to the planet Pluto and back, and then multiply that 80 times. That's the amount of information and data that is stored in the Cloud." It's absolutely mind-boggling, isn't it?
But now all this data is beginning to talk to each other and communicate and that's what "The Internet of Things" is all about, or the IoT as its acronym is known as. What is the Internet of Things? It's a network of physical objects or things, embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.
Things! I was curious. What are the "things" that are getting connected? I realized that it is exactly what we refer to as things – everything. In the talk that he gave on TED talks, Barrett says, "For example, anything is a thing – goods, objects, machines, appliances, buildings, vehicles, people, plants, anything." How does all this play out? Looking at a chair on stage, he said, "If I want to find out whether this chair is occupied, and who is sitting on it, and I'm somewhere else, I have to do a couple of things. "
1. I need to give the chair a unique identity for itself, and with IPv6, that is possible.
2. I need to be able to communicate with this chair.
3. I need to give it senses, and for this particular one, I'll put a pressure sensor to tell me if someone is sitting on it.
4. Then I'll put an RFID tag reader so that the person sitting on it can be identified.
5. And then finally embed a tiny electronic circuit that can talk to my smartphone wherever I am.
That's amazing, isn't it? Take that away from just the example of a chair and think how this can be used in a more practical way. Lights that go on and off in a building, for example. You have a whole building that has lights on the ceiling and they turn on only as a person approaches. There are motion sensors that sense as a person comes, a light will come on and as they pass away from that spot, it goes off. The advantages are conservation of electricity, and less heat generated. But that is at its very minimal application.
Cisco's Chairman, Chuck Robbins predicts that there will be 50 billion devices connected online by the year 2020. That's a very conservative estimate. But that's a huge number of "things" that are being connected and major companies are quickly trying to get on board this bandwagon and get a head start. Recently Amazon came out with what they call the DRS program – the dash replenishment service. Basically, it adds a convenience for use for customers and device makers alike. Customers don't have to do anything. They can simply rely on the connected device to automatically reorder the consumables that keep their homes running smoothly. For example, Brita water pitchers automatically order additional filters when it is time for the existing ones to be replaced. In fact Amazon is now tying up with different companies – General Electric, Samsung, Gmate, Oster, August – to offer what they call the DRS program. All of these advances are due to the IoT.
But along with this, there are risks. Michael Chui on the McKinsey Global site was having an interview with 5 people who are very knowledgeable in this area. He threw the question: "What are the risks associated with all of this information and the potential harm that this could do?" Almost all of them came up with security. Security is the key. How do you make sure that this information doesn't get into the wrong hands of people who could misuse it? For example, think about self-driving cars, zipping along the highway at 80 miles/hour, then the computer being taken over by somebody else, and catastrophic things happening. Or an aircraft on flight with someone hacking into the controls. These are some of the risks that are involved with this expanding amount of knowledge and the onus must be on how wisely and securely this information gets to be handled.
In the same talk that I was listening to, John Barrett cautions, "We have a kind of a pyramid too. At the bottom of the pyramid is the data that we collect. Out of that data, we get information. That information provides us with knowledge. But, unless we put on top of the pyramid, wisdom, then the common good is not going to be met." How do you take all that information and make it common good? What do we do in making sure that it is used in a way in which it will benefit all sections of community? I still remember reading Bill Gates' commencement address at Harvard in 2007. He said, "I learnt a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences. But humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Reducing inequity is the highest human achievement." How true, and well put.
Unless even the IoT aids in alleviating poverty, removing discrimination, enabling greater research in needed areas, it might just make the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" greater, and that would be a travesty. It ultimately must be used for the benefit and the upliftment of people who desperately need uplifting. As our Scriptures say, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up," and It is the love that we must have for fellow human beings and those who don't have as much as we have, that must drive this knowledge. My prayer and hope is that we may all think in these categories, and that "reducing inequities would become our highest achievement."
May I offer this prayer on our behalf?
Almighty God. Help us to use our minds to unlock great and wonderful truths, and give us hearts of love that will throb and resonate with the glaring needs around us, so that the hungry are fed, the unclothed, clothed, the homeless, sheltered, and the marginalized, mainstreamed. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Endnotes:
• John Barrett, "The Internet of Things at TEDxCIT, https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=54&v=QaTIt1C5R-M
• "Internet of Things," Definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things
• Michael Chui, "The Internet of Things: 5 Critical Questions." http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_internet_of_things_five_critical_questions
• Jonathan Vanian, "The Internet of Things is real (and confusing)" http://fortune.com/2015/10/05/cisco-chuck-robbins-internet/
• Leslie Hook, "Amazon makes a dash to take the lead in the Internet of Things," http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/721c3c98-6a91-11e5-aca9-d87542bf8673.html#axzz3nkjomWPh
• Jeff Byrnes, "Amazon Dash Replenishment Service makes shopping smarter," http://appadvice.com/appnn/2015/10/amazon-dash-replenishment-service-makes-shopping-smarter
• Bill Gates' Commencement address, http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/06/remarks-of-bill-gates-harvard-commencement-2007/
• Bible quote: 1 Corinthians 8:1
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