The future reach of technology into the private lives of humans will be downright scary to some of us, but there is safety net in place, as custom integrators will likely be the primary gatekeepers.
That’s the message from author and futurist Shelly Palmer, president and CEO of Palmer Advanced Media and keynote speaker at CEDIA 2016 in Dallas.
Palmer describes an Orwellian-type future in which every aspect of human life will be dependent on technology, with an intrusive element pervading it. Palmer left no stone unturned as he described a future where technology controls everything from 3D printing, driverless cars, appliances, virtual reality, robotics, open source code, gaming and more.
The future will also come with it a gigantic threat for hacking.
“There are two kinds of companies in this world: those that have been hacked and those that don’t know that they have been hacked,” he deadpanned.
“What your business is about to turn into will make the NSA look like a walk at DisneyWorld,” said Palmer glibly to the gathered crowd of about 1,000 integrators in a speech held on the eve of CEDIA 2016 exhibits and sponsored by Lutron.
He outlined that the future connected home would be constantly collecting data on the occupants, but the homeowners would not necessarily be voluntarily giving out that data. Indeed, the home would be collecting “passively engaged data” that is gathered from in-home sensors, cameras, etc.
“You guys are the architects of your own future. That is way better than inventing the future. You get to decide the amount of interaction between technology and humans in the Man-Machine partnership,” he said.
In other words, he foresees at some point a great level of pushback from homeowners about how invasive the reach of technology might become and integrators will be the ones who decide the limitations of that reach as they design systems in homes for their clients.
Palmer advised integrators who might have young kids today to tell those children to pursue a career in Open Source Coding.
“They should ask the question, 'What problems can I solve?' and then using Open Source Coding to try to solve those problems,” he advised.
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