Beware The Future – It’s Closer than You Think. What The Internet of Things Means For Indie Authors. Part 1.
Just suppose that strong data protection safeguards are built-in to the internet of things so your online viewing habits or what book you are reading do not get passed onto third parties without your own (very explicit permission). Suppose that some clever hackers hack Google or some other website and discover your browsing habits. Further suppose that the hackers have an agenda (for example a belief that erotica is morally unacceptable). They discover that you are a huge consumer of erotica and plaster this fact all over their website including your personal details (name, address etc) allowing their followers to harass and, possibly physically attack you (remember your personal details are on their site). I suspect that in the future (as in the present) people will be able to opt out of receiving ads, however the main concern (other than the misuse of information by authoritarian governments) will, as I said above come from hackers illegally harvesting your data. The idea of robot written novels doesn’t worry me as, in my opinion good writing will always have a market (he said hopefully)!
Originally posted on Ebook Bargains UK Blog:
The problem with the future is, its coming up behind you. You can never be quite sure how far away it is, and you can never be quite sure whether it will sweep you up with it, sweep by and leave you behind, or just run right over you.
Over at the Motley Fool recently they ran this snippet from an old copy of Newsweek. From February 1995.
In it one Newsweek journalist opined,
“Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries, and multimedia classrooms… [They say] we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure. The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper…
“We’re promised instant catalog shopping — just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more…
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