Now arriving: Internet of Things
While several technical experts highlighted just how smart our appliances, lights, cars, factories, and even cities are becoming, another questioned whether we’re thinking hard enough about what technology should do rather than what it can do. As computers get smarter, smaller, and more portable, their brains are being added to an array of formerly dumb devices in all aspects of our lives, even when we are on the road. These smart devices are increasingly equipped with sensors and connected to the internet, allowing data to flow from the external environment to central collection points to be stored, analyzed, and used for a variety of purposes, including optimizing performance. But the massive amount of data being gathered also raises ethical questions about its use, and Jim Waldo, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and chief technology officer at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said...