As I was taking notes on Wednesday’s lecture about the Internet of Things (IoT), I began to see parallels between this class’s curriculum and content and that of my MGMT 301 class. In MGMT, we have been using Elon Musk’s enterprises and Mary Bara of General Motors to exemplify the characteristics and roles of different types of management and what it looks like when they are conducted successfully. Mary Bara had stated in a conference that the three biggest factors for success in the automotive industry going forward would automation, electrification, and connectivity. Elon Musk has already helped push the automotive industry toward electrification with the line of all electric vehicles, automation with their autopilot technology, and connectivity with features such as EVE, a control center for news, weather, and home systems monitoring. With the rapid development of IoT technology and applications, Tesla and the following wave of automotive electrification opens doors for countless uses and advantages of IoT technology across the board. Application of such technology is already present in homes with assistants like Alexa and Home, and appliances like Nest and Ring. In manufacturing, systems are engineered and set- up to coordinate seamless autonomy via communication between other systems within the facility’s network to ensure maximum manufacturing efficiency. Technological interconnectivity and programmability enables efficiency and provides the means for innovation across many aspects of our day-to-day life. With these possibilities there also come drawback such as increased potential for cybercriminals and a larger data cloud possessing more information and from more individuals. However, like many revolutions in the past, the revolution of the internet is not immune from the potentiality of averse effects. The American industrial revolution brought great manufacturing potential to the country and some other parts of the world, but it also allowed for the mass production of arms and military good during the second world war which would then be used to kill hundreds of thousands of people. It also brought about mass consumerism which has had its fair share of environmental impact. At the end of the lesson, Prof. Pursel asked if we think the evolution of the IoT will bring about an era of downturn in which technology further enables human laziness or of it would cause an era of enlightenment in which humans utilize optimized technological networks to increase our potential as a species. I am of the notion that humans will continue to evolve in culture and in our ability to utilize technology. If humans are to die out, it will much more likely be from overstimulation of the physical resources and capabilities at our disposal than it would be due to our failure to invent and innovate due to the ease at which trivial tasks can be completed by technological assistance.

Sources:
https://teslaapps.net/en/
https://www.tesla.com/autopilot
https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-iot-5-predictions-for-the-future-of-iot.html