The Internet of Money

The Internet of Things is a definite revolution in its own right, but it is also part of something bigger: the Internet of Money.  The first real "Big Data" collection was/is financial: stock trades, money markets, consumer debt.  It all got stored on computers.  That led to things like Flash Trading, Mortgage Backed Securities and, more recently, BitCoin and its siblings.  Some of it bad, some of it good, mostly just changes brought about by the increasing access and automation of data without any moral compass beyond "it'll make things easier (and there are fees to earn.)"

From Funnel to Cycle

The Internet of Things fits in here because it starts to expand automation from data automation to thing automation.  Which is why we're all excited about it.  But for the companies that are investing in this buzzword, it goes beyond making it easy for you to set your thermostat or have the lights come on when you open the door.  All of that is the hook.  Ultimately, they want to automate your purchase decisions.

This has already been massively accelerated due to the internet.  If you look at the pre-internet consumer decision journey, it is a funnel:

Source: Business2Community.com

With the rise of the Internet and, more importantly, recommendation engines (based on individual buying data = big data), this turned from a funnel into a cycle:

Source: wearesocial.com

Recommendation engines operating on the "If you like this, then you'll like it again and also things similar to it" mean that we consumers no longer have to start at the top of the funnel for each and every purchase, but can work within a trust circle (that inner, smaller loop.)  But we still have to make the purchase every time.  We have to actually click on "Add to Cart."

From Cycle to Out-Of-The-Loop

The big change to the Internet of Money brought on by the Internet of Things is that now, the cycle only needs to happen once.  Instead of us making that lower re-loop when we need to replace something, the purchase has already been made and we no longer have to be part of the loop.

This has been going on in industry for a while.  "Just in Time"  inventory (keeping only enough parts in stock to last a re-stocking cycle) is a similar process, but had purchasing agents involved.  The newer system that everyone from retailers to manufacturers to restaurants have been working on for the past two decades is to connect their inventory management systems together, allowing purchase orders to be automatically sent out when inventory reaches a critical state.

Here's Where You Come In (Or Not)

What smart home manufacturers want is to create a similar inventory management system for your home.  If your home system knows when you are low on milk (through your smart refrigerator,) then it can order more and have it sent to your home.  It gets charged to your registered account (plus shipping and tax and a fee) and you can cross off a thing you no longer have to worry about.  In theory, the fee is less than the gas that you would use to go get that same milk.

All of this assumes that you have a smart appliance, that you take the time to teach it your tastes in various brands, that it won't start recommending other brands (or simply ordering them) because of some kick back between the various milk cartels, that you have consistent power and a solid internet connection.  Then, after all of that is set up, you won't have to worry about buying milk ever again.

What a world.

The Final Plea - Why I want to be VP

I've written a fair amount on what I would do as Vice President under Hillary and the Machine and some of my qualifications, but I'm not sure that I've adequately explained why I want the job.

Bringing the Weird to the HRC Ticket

There are news articles saying that Hillary and The Machine are looking for someone well versed in National Security.  They are saying that Bubba is pushing for Tom Kaine.  These are wrong.  She needs someone Weird.

This election cycle has been one of the weirdest in this writer's memory.  Certainly the weirdest since I became politically conscious enough to follow politics at all.  And Trump is maybe the weirdest part.  He bought himself a Hollywood walk of fame star, presumably for his 'work' on "The Apprentice".  His tweets are ... I'm not sure weird does them justice.  And there's the hair.

His VP pick, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, is not weird.  He may be a lot of things, but for a candidate, he is a career politician with experience managing an executive office.  His the kind of person you would expect a major party candidate to pick for Vice President.  He is not weird.  Hillary is the Mike Pence of her ticket.  She also is not weird.  She needs someone who can close the weird gap.  Someone who can bring the weird and balance the ticket.

Closing the Weird Gap

What are my weirdness qualifications?  First off, I'm writing this series of posts asking to be Vice President.  I am a nobody in the political world (or in lots of other worlds... they have no idea who I am on Margathea or on Frogstar Planet B.)  Also, I make Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy references.  That's at least Megadodo Junior Editor achievement in weird.

My second piece of evidence is my Instagram profile.  It consists of nothing but pictures of blue post-it notes with nonsense quotes on them.  Instead of telling a story with pictures, I'm taking pictures of words.  Weird.

Finally, I'm not going to give you a third instance of being weird, thereby violating the 'Rule of Three' principle of writing.  Which is weird.

Hire me Hill-Bear.  I want to help you close the weird gap.

#schmoidforVP

What I Will Do As Vice President

I've watched enough episodes of "Veep" (0.5) to know that the job is mostly cocktail parties where people try to peddle influence.  I've watched enough episodes of "West Wing" (all of them) and "House of Cards" (all of them so far) to know that there is more to the job: glad handing foreign dignitaries when the real President doesn't have time, playing bad cop with Capital Hill and pushing secondary agenda items for the party.

Choose Me for VP

Mid-week WTF edition

The news is full of (shiz-to-my-nizzle) who the HRC will choose for Vice President.  Will it be a male brewer from Colorado or a female firebrand?  Will it by an Hispanic from HUD?

I suggest that none of these are the best choice.

Instead, pick me.  

Why?  Because as a middle-aged, divorced father of one I bring a lot to the table.

Pokemon Reality

The last two weeks have reminded me that I'm old and I blame Pokemon Go.  I'm a half-generation too old even to approach it as a nostalgia item.  Also, the MSD (Middle School Daughter, for those of you that had forgotten) is too tied up in UnderTale and listening to 8-bit soundtracks to care about Pikachu and friends.  No, my generation got Garbage Pail Kids and ain't no one making a phone game out of those.

(Source: Geekyrant.com)

So, I'm old because I don't want to go chasing around the southwestern american desert in the summer racking up data charges looking for virtual cockfighting contestants.  Instead, I want to look at the whole phenomenon as the first real use of Augmented Reality in a marketing campaign.

Qioto

Source

Today, I want to take a second to make a more personal post.  This will be less about the Internet of Things (however I choose to define it) and more about this blog and IoT information resources.  Fair warning.

Straight Outta Nowhere

A couple of months ago, I received direct message via twitter from some dude asking if I was interested in writing for his up and coming website.  After some back and forth, I decided that, yes, I have the time for this.  More importantly, as I learned more about what they were trying to do, I realized that I wanted to write for Qioto whether I had the time or not.  (Then I was employed, so time really was an issue.  Now I'm not traditionally employed and the actual writing is not much of an issue.)

Autonomous Morality

Ego Morality

Today's topic is how 'morality' will be programmed into autonomous vehicles.  There has been some recurring press on this issue over the last month and I've had some time to formulate my thoughts on this topic.  It is tough as, like most of first-world humanity, I think I'm moral but I've never faced the really tough life-and-death moral decisions that put that assertion to the test.  Most of my morality training has come from Star Trek, and that's not bad, but it is fairly basic and presumes that I'm sitting on the bridge of a star ship in orbit, debating the gray areas of the Prime Directive.  I hope I never have to even that.  Should it happen though, I'm pretty sure that if I have the time to think through the decision, I'll do the right thing.

But, that's the catch: 'if I have the time to think it through'.  The area where this is most likely to happen in my current life path is when I drive.  It is easily the most dangerous thing that I do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis (I ski and take some bigger risks there, but am only able to get in about twelve days a year).  Driving is a task that, when it goes south, will happen too quickly for my frontal lobe to override my learned motor skills and lizard brain reflexes.  Reflexes that have been fine tuned over hundreds of thousands of years to keep the individual alive.