Podcast transcript: Internet of Things
This podcast is part of the UCIL Digital Society course from the University of Manchester running in 2020/21 semester 1. The story it relates to is hosted on Medium and can be found here.
In this podcast Simone and Kane from the Library Student Team review the topic, Smart Cities, with help from your comments.
Internet of Things transcript
Hi, my name is Simone from the Library Student Team and I’m here with my Student Team colleague, Kane. We very much enjoyed reading your contributions on ’The Internet of Things’, which was this week’s topic. You read about how the Internet of Things fit the framework of previous Industrial Revolutions, and where it is today. We will be discussing and shedding more light on what you said in response to the questions and activities on this topic.
After asking you to watch the 1962 video in which the Jetsons imagined what life might be like 100 years into the future, we asked you to think about your present day and decide if you are positive about the development of technology in your life. 83% of you affirmed that technology has impacted positively on your lives while 11% noted that it may have a positive impact. Although no one stated that technology had no positive impact in their lives, 6% were unsure if technology has had a positive impact on their lives. Considering that one of the core motivators for developing technology is to ease processes and make lives better, it is unsurprising that most of you have benefited positively from technology.
Secondly, we asked for your thoughts on memex which is a hypertext system and a sort of mechanised file and library. We then asked you to comment on pieces of 2020 technology that you think memex is closest to, and why. A significant portion of your responses compared memex to the current day storage devices like hard disks/drives and flash drives. Whilst commenting on the sophistication of memex at that time, a response likened it to cloud storage services like google drive, icloud, Dropbox etc. Others found similarities between memex and smartphones, tablets and internet access. One supporter of the above notion commented that…
“a tablet would be the most similar piece of technology due to it being the best device to see information on yet still be easily portable and accessible.“
Another person considered that Kindle devices share more similarities with the memex considering that books stored on Kindle cannot be edited but information stored on all of the other devices can be edited.
We also asked for your own example of an Internet-connected device or sensor, a brief explanation about it, and what questions it might raise about the collection and use of data. One of you gave a very interesting example about “Smart fridges” and how it can help the consumer know about the state of contents inside the fridge and when to purchase grocery. While this might be helpful to consumers, you also raised a very valid question about sharing consumer behaviour online with third party vendors. Another interesting example was Google Home and Alexa devices, which are increasingly becoming a part of our lives. From switching the lights off to asking about the weather today, smart devices are helping humans make their day to day tasks easier. While these smart devices may be of great help, one of you questioned whether having these devices listen to sensitive conversation inside the house and storing this data actually safe? Another concern that was raised in the comments was about multinational companies having data about your health and using target advertising to the point of breaching your privacy.
We then asked you about the potential applications of Internet of Things and how it could affect your future employment. A common theme in the answers was about companies investing in automation and robotics to reduce human employees. One very interesting response was about using robotics in the judiciary system as machines do not have feelings. While we certainly understand the idea behind this, implementing it might not be possible due to ethical reasons. It was great to see that a lot of you believe that while some jobs will be lost to automation, more jobs will be created in other industries due to robots requiring human supervision. A few of you also pointed out that you had not really considered the impact those new technologies would have in the job market, maybe because you perceived it would affect mostly, or only the tech industries. However, your responses, overall, suggest that you realise now that these AI technologies may be integrated into just about any job, either directly or indirectly as a supplement, and would therefore have an impact on almost every industry.
You were then asked to respond about your feelings towards Internet of Things and whether you think it will be a force for good or bad depending on how and why it is used. An overwhelming majority of about 80% agreed with the statement. 16% of you were not sure about it and 4% of you totally disagreed with the statement.
Lastly, we asked you to write a response giving your critical argument for whether you think the IoT is a force for good or bad. You were also asked to use and link to evidence to back-up your argument, demonstrate a counter argument, and respond to any comments on your own response. At the end when we asked you if your thoughts about Internet of Things being a force for good or bad has changed after this activity, the majority of you said no. A lot of respondents were also unsure about their opinion and an equal number believed that their opinions changed after doing the final activity.
Next week we’ll be looking at Smart Cities, and the impact technology has on where we live, work and play. Thanks for all your contributions this week, and we look forward to hearing your opinions next time! Enjoy the rest of your course!
