The Internet to me is one of the biggest innovations ever. When you think of it, as the developer of the Internet, where did he even start?! Like the camera, the Internet is hands down one of the most beautiful creation yet. It will continue to amaze us and behold, we now have objects who blogs!
Julian Bleecker's 'Why Things Matter?' sheds a light on these thingies. It is a tricky concept to understand I must say but maybe with these videos, you'd understand the idea of Blogjects (objects that blog).
No, I'm not kidding you about Blogjects. These objects already exists and in the future, billions more Blogjects will surface in our homes. The social web now isn't solely for us humans only but it is becoming the "Internet of Things". These thingies joins and exchanges ideas through the web. They will become like human bloggers (you and I) by starting, maintaining and being smart in conversations. The relevant topics blogged by Blogjects will contribute to human's decision making.
Their characteristics includes
- Being able to track and trace where they have been
- Having embedded histories of their encounters and experiences
- Having an assertive voice within the social web
Which brings us to the point of why things matter? It is twofold, 1) For cohabitation - Space and Place; 2) For co-participation.
Cohabitation - Space and Place
Of these two points, I do agree with them pertinent to why Blogjects matters. Now in terms of space and place, it's really true how Bleecker has put it. Our things can now upload, download, disseminate and stream meaningful stuff. And all of these translates into being informative.
It is important to pay attention to these things because with an array of information, surely it will affect the physical world. These Blogjects will actually take up the space in various places in reality - a CCTV in a shopping mall, a body sensor in our pockets, a temperature device in our homes. If we're talking about CCTV being placed everywhere, it possesses a threat of privacy where we will feel uncomfortable with the rise of Blogjects.
Food for thought, wouldn't this function be an absolute thrill for Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks team? Where information can be achieved with these devices plugged into our surroundings?
Co-participation -
The Internet is ubiquitous and this applies to Blogjects too. As long as there's a network connection, these things will be exchanging information and participating in the media and content. They will be our Personal Assistant if I may put it. They will be participating in our daily routine to give us information, a different point of view, help and convenience.
This does get a lot of work done in a systematic order as our Blogjects has worked together to schedule out the most on time schedule for us. A very good function as we're all living in a fast paced era and especially the fact that it not only benefit us but others as well.
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In my opinion, there are the good and bad of Blogjects. The good thing is, we will benefit a lot from them. One thing is we will be able to know about important elements around us - the creatures under the sea, the animals on the brink of extinction in Amazon, the ferry being 15 minutes behind schedule. With devices and sensor embedded in various places, we will get these information as the objects will blog to us about the latest happenings. Information drives the world on.
Also, Blogjects can save lives! Now imagine this, if you were 80 years old, fragile and accident prone, specific medical related Blogjects will be useful. If you've fallen down in the bathroom and you've passed out, the Blogjects will automatically notifies an ambulance or someone about it. This does not necessarily applies only to the senior citizens but to everyone else as well, depending on the issue and the situation.
The bad thing is, I will see these Blogjects as an intrusion. Don't get me wrong, to have Blogjects waking you up, turning the hot water on the shower for you, automatically brewing your coffee and more really does makes life easier for us. Everything's on the go, but if this is how the future really rolls, then I believe certain people would not be comfortable to having objects in our house talking. It will seem odd and creepy at first. It's like we're being scrutinized and watched at so these Blogjects can speculate what to do for us.
Other than that it will be the usual on how human will be lazy and will be overly dependent on these devices and also the cost of having Blogjects in our homes would be another matter to ponder as well. I guess innovation will seem strange at the beginning, but once everyone accepts it, it'll eventually become a norm. Question, with Blogjects rising to the top, will it completely takes us over? If so, Houston, we've got a problem!
To date, I have not own any Blogjects yet. But it intrigues and excites me to see what's in store in the future. I think Blogjects are relatively cool and interesting which will bring the world to a whole new shift. Anticipating Blogjects!
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