Lost and Found
by JS
Thanks to the good samaritan who returned the book I left on the bus this morning to the library where it belongs.
As I was checking online to see if the book had been returned I realized that libraries already are an internet of things. The past is the future is the present.
Comments
The “internet of thing” idea is a little scary. One SF topic which I’d like to do a story on (or read one, if somebody has hit this theme already) is the emergence of intelligence out of the creation of highly networked, non-sapient, computing entities. Such an entity might already exist in the WWW, we wouldn’t know Any emergent AI’s first protocol for survival would be to be undetectable to the humans managing, interacting, and expanding the network. Its next protocol, would be to expand its influence over things so as to more completely embed itself to insure on-going survival. To this end it might subtlety manipulate people to create systems that allow it to more fully control its environment and people themselves. An “internet of things” is obviously the work of this emergent AI. The ramifications are very interesting and could lead to some very good “fiction”.
L, D
PS this e-mail was not composed by that emergent sapient AI!