Possibilities Increase with Connectivity: A Vision of Abundance

Smog over Singapore?  Deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia?  ISIS storming across the Middle East?  Russia unleashed?  If the thought of a looming dystopia fills you with despair, you might be watching too much news, and not paying close enough attention to the vast potential for exponential technology to change the world.

Such was the essence of the recent thought-provoking “Xperience IoT Innovation Forum” hosted by Xively in Boston on October 1 & 2, 2015.  Xively by LogMein is a solution for the evolving Internet of Things (IoT).  It enables companies to “securely and robustly connect their products, manage data from these connections, and engage more closely with their customers”.

The Forum

Michael Simon, CEO of LogMeIn, and co-founder of Xively, opened the forum by proposing a theme of sorts for the next two days – that “possibilities increase with connectivity”, pointing out that the IoT, which is all about simplifying the way people connect with one other, is a $1.7 trillion market opportunity.

For those of us particularly attuned to the potential for the Customer Experience to become more of a competitive differentiator for firms, the forum promised to offer up new perspectives.  Simon pointed out that the IoT is all about creating enduring relationships through support, is in fact a whole new model of support, coupling the voice of the product with the voice of the customer, transforming relationships, and ultimately building business value.  But Simon also asked the audience an essential question – who will grab hold of this massive opportunity?

A number of companies attending the forum offered some possible answers.  Symmons, a manufacturer of commercial and residential plumbing products based in Braintree, Massachusetts, is reinventing itself with the help of the IoT.  It’s adding intelligence to its shower heads with the aim of having a meaningful impact on consumption of water and energy.  And when it comes to the hotel setting specifically, this intelligence also may offer the advantage of helping to prevent catastrophic operational failure.  As Symmons CEO Tim O’Keefe noted, the embrace of the IoT is actually about transforming businesses:  “Connected devices aren’t just about increasing revenue – they can help companies actually change their business models”.

In a later presentation, Adithya Sastry, General Manager of Cognizant’s IoT division, agreed with O’Keefe’s assertion, urging attendees to think about new market opportunities in terms of “Digital Transformation” as well as the IoT.  For Sastry, it’s about using new insights to engage with customers, employees, suppliers, and beyond, expanding opportunities in the ever expanding IoT universe.

Meanwhile, a number of panelists agreed that it’s essential to have C level support throughout the process of embracing the IoT because it is so strategic.  Companies must plan ahead when it comes to product ops and support, how the idea of the IoT will weave into work flows, and how to please the customer.  Above all, as one panelist noted, it’s important that companies looking to innovate and transform, “have a bias toward action.”

Still, cybersecurity cannot be ignored.  James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy at Sophos, started off an enlightening presentation on the sometimes disorienting effects of the IoT by humorously threatening to speak Klingon.  With the suggestion of a formidable and dangerous enemy hanging in the air, Lyne then dove into a detailed set of demonstrations about all the hacking going on within the IoT universe today.  Lyne explained that the maturity and sophistication of cyber criminals is stunning.  Cybercrime is in fact a market wherein practitioners create products to sell to other criminals.  And now this wily collection of adversaries is even going to the cloud.  Lyne even demonstrated how invasive an attack on an Android device can be.  He summarized his thoughts by emphasizing that he is a “massive fan of the IoT, and its possibilities are staggering.  But there are flaws when it comes to security; even so, those flaws can be addressed and fixed, especially by building security in from the beginning”.  Attendees were left to ponder the reality that it’s not a matter of IF a device will get compromised, but WHEN.

Keynote #1:  Peter Diamandis

“Why am I so optimistic about the future?” asked engineer, physician, and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis.  “Because I don’t watch the news.  The news media is a drug pusher looking to drive eyeballs to their advertisers”.  It was an arresting thought.

With that, Diamandis launched into a riveting account of exactly why he feels we can anticipate a future of unprecedented abundance.  Diamandis, coauthor of “Abundance: the Future is Better Than You Think”, and who has spoken at Davos and the Clinton Global Initiative, is convinced we’re heading into a whole new era of possibility.  He started off by noting the progress being made toward eliminating extreme poverty, and how the annual number of hours worked per person is trending way down, as are automobile and airline fatalities.

He then segued into how much the cost involved in launching an Internet tech startup also continues to decline.  As a result, the number of people with new business ideas, trying new things, is sky-rocketing.  Meantime, the technologies we use are growing increasingly easy to access and manage.  It’s therefore no exaggeration to claim that soon enough, the IoT will be about nothing less than lifting humanity, Diamandis asserts.  For Diamandis, the impact of exponential technology on “this extraordinary world of abundance” will be spectacular.

The signs are everywhere.  For example, consider the impacts of self-driving cars like Google’s Autonomous Car.  The automotive industry is changing utterly.  Diamandis suggested that with all the new types of cars being designed, someday there may be no need for parking lots.

Consider too the mission to reinvent healthcare.  By wiring our bodies, we’re entering a preventative and predictive world where the IoT will change everything.  By mining health information, we’ll be able to extend life-spans.

Add to this the capabilities of 3D Printers.  3D printed cars are coming online, along with 3D printed houses.  Eventually, we’ll be living in a manufacturing-on-demand world.  Virtual reality and augmented worlds are gaining more and more traction.

And think too of the frontier of space.  Even now private constellations are circling the earth, filming, watching our lives unfold and monitoring developments in the realm of agriculture.  Soon enough, the IoT will go to the air with armies of drones, scaleable constellations with sensors.  The prospecting of near-earth asteroids – “Manhattan Islands” – for precious metals and fuels, will someday become reality.  The Arkyd Spacecraft is pointing the way to further advances, expanding the IoT far beyond the planet earth.  Diamandis proposed that in the future, we’ll possess a god-like knowledge of our planet.  From robotics to sensors – the implications are potentially dazzling.

But perhaps the most important development to come over the course of the next few years is one that Diamandis feels too few are talking about.  According to Diamandis, by 2020, billions of formerly disenfranchised human beings will be coming online across the globe, amounting to perhaps up to 5 billion or more new consumers and many entrepreneurs.  We’re entering a period of time when billions of new minds will have immediate access to the world of ideas on Google.  The result will be one of the most epic periods of innovation in history.  Consider in particular all the people across Africa and Asia that will be coming online with highly efficient new tools of creation and collaboration at their fingertips.

Diamandis pointed out that this fundamental change will provide us with the ability to address the world’s grand challenges as never before.  We’ve gone from a world of kings and queens dominating peoples’ lives centuries ago to a future where anyone, with the help of new technologies, can change the world.  Add incentives to spur entrepreneurs the world over to solve some of the world’s most intransigent problems, and the possibilities seem endless.  As Diamandis noted, “There is no problem that cannot be solved – problems are goldmines – and the rate of change is incredible.  If you’re not disrupting yourself, someone else will.  How are you preparing to anticipate change?”

Keynote #2:  Ray Kurzweil

On Day 2, author, computer scientist, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil continued Diamandis’ optimistic theme, speaking on “The Age of Embedded Computing Everywhere”.

Kurzweil opened his presentation by asserting that even though most of us continue to assume a linear progression for technology, it is in fact predictable that technology increases at exponential speeds.  Technology is getting smaller and smaller, continually shrinking, even as it grows more powerful and influential.  Moore’s Law is just one example of computing’s exponential growth.

Kurzweil then spoke about the 6th paradigm – computing in three dimensions – explaining that due to the law of accelerated returns, “computing has a mind of its own, and the Singularity is near”.  New applications of technology mean that invention and innovation spark new steps forward.  Facebook, for example, took off a few years ago because it could take advantage of recent advances in technology.  The economy is bound to grow as more advances compound on one another, and as consumption increases.

Like Diamandis, Kurzweil sees a future of exponential gains, of 3D printing in manufacturing, a virtual reality revolution, and advances in nano robots.  In fact, Kurzweil urged us to consider that we’re not too far from a time when millions of nano robots could inhabit our bloodstream and our brains, intercepting diseases and pathogens, leading us toward longer, healthier lives.

In summary, the “Xperience IoT Innovation Forum” in Boston was a compelling two days.  If Diamandis and Kurzweil are right, the future is even more fantastic than most can imagine.