From: Doc Emmet Brown
To: Marty Mcfly
Dear Marty,
If my calculations are correct. the last time we saw each other was the year 1985. Ten years later, in the year 1995, you’ve followed in your father’s footsteps and become a science fiction writer.
Marty, I am writing to alarm you about a major disturbance in the future of technology. This technology will derail the ubiquity of flying cars, self-lacing Nikes, and hoverboards.
The very technology that you’re using for the first time in 1995, the internet, yes my dear Marty, it will alter the future of mankind in ways you can’t imagine! Great Scott! Marty, you currently use your phone and a modem to access the internet. In the future, twenty years from now, we will be on the dawn of an era where every device around you will access the internet. These devices will talk to each other! You don’t understand, but this is the dawn of IOT aka Internet of Things. Your car, your phone, your air conditioner, each device will have the capacity to talk to the “smart” devices around it.
You don’t understand, but this technology is IoT aka the Internet of Things. Your car, your phone, your air conditioner, each device will have the capacity to talk to the “smart” devices around it.
Marty, I risk this automated email because I know that when it finds you, you’ll have the ability to avoid the mistakes that other science fiction writers made when writing about the future. I’ve listed several well-known science fiction films. Some titles you may or may not know. I’ve taken the time to provide you a synopsis of each and how IoT technology will impact each!
Blade Runner – Based in 2019, set in a dystopian Los Angeles that feels like Hong Kong sprinkled with flying cars and buildings shaped like pyramids. A group of androids that resemble human beings are trying to find their creator before their batteries run out and hopefully get some re-engineering for a bunch of 1-UPs. Unfortunately for Phillip K. Dick, androids don’t dream of electric sheep and the IoT world which is upon us would have tagged these human-gobots wherever they roamed. The replicants wouldn’t have been able to fit in and the global tracking network would have told on them wherever they went, making Deckard’s job much easier. Even if Roy Batty made it into the elevator with JF Sebastian the emotion recognition system would have sensed that something was terribly wrong, never allowing them to continue to Dr. Tyrell floor. No late night chess.
Minority Report – In the year 2054, future crimes aka Precrimes are monitored and foretold by a trio of Ms. Cleo’s known as “The Precogs,” who proactively work with law enforcement and the film’s protagonist, John Anderton to prevent crimes from happening in the future. An IoT world will eliminate the need for Precogs or a Precrime unit! Emotions like anger will be monitored and reported to the emotions department of the local law enforcement who will track and interact with IoT devices around you to prevent you from committing crimes. Thinking about killing your wife’s secret lover? Forget it. Your smart car won’t allow you to drive to his home until your anger levels have decreased.
The Matrix – A hacker named Neo is recruited by a group of humans who’ve broken free of the digital matrix controlling humans in the future. IoT will place us in a matrix and it will be almost impossible to escape. We’ll connect to the IoT matrix by the devices and machines in our environment, learning, reporting and calculating our every move. This story should be rewritten and feature Neo as a human who simply doesn’t want to have his every action monitored and reported. Regardless of what pill you choose, that day is coming.
Terminator – In the future year of 2029, an artificial machine intelligence, a computer system known as Skynet, has taken over the world. The humans who rebel against Skynet are led by John Connor. In the film, Skynet will send a Terminator, a killing robot, to the past to find and kill Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor — before he’s born. In an IoT world, a revolt will be futile. Each human will be digitally marked and regardless of where you go, you’ll interact with devices that know you, report and share data about you. Marty, there will be no resistance. IoT is the future. IoT is Skynet.
I realize that these words may come to you as a surprise. In the year 1995, you’re just getting familiar with chat rooms and it is hard to put faith in an Internet that connects machines to one another, an Internet without modems and more importantly, without AOL.
However, 20 years from now, this will be so. Work hard. Write well Futureboy, and know that every device in Hill Valley will one day connected to the internet.
P.S. — Our trip to the future altered the future of baseball! The Cubs won the World Series a year later! Great Scott!
