SMACTA3DNX

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SMACT-technology (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, Things) is already so woven in almost everybody's lives, that nobody complains about the drawbacks anymore. Admitted, looking at the numbers of people using it,  the advantages of SMACT for the consumer are obvioulsy there. A few examples around those already impressive numbers:

  • Social media: Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp is currently used by over a stunning 1000 Million active users each, QQ and WeChat (the Chinese competitors) over 800M each, Tumblr and Intstagram both over 500M, Twitter and Skype over 300M; 
  • Mobile: over 62% of the world population is already using a mobile phone and that pecentage will rise with 1.5% YOY for at least the next 5 years;
  • Analytics: looking at the Social Media numbers and everything you see after you have bought anything on internet, personal advertisement is already targetting over 2000 Million people;
  • Cloud: well, in fact Cloud is just another word for "internet" but with some storage and intelligence added to the bare network capabilities. Over 3000 Million people are already connected to it. Every day another 50.000 people are being added.
  • IoT: already over 2000 Million devices are connected to others. In 2020 this number will be around 5000 Million.

Artificial Intelligence will be added soon to this list because obviously todays vendors like Amazon, Apple, Google, Apple and more are already trying to use it as the glue between everything not in the least by emphasizing human speech as the "new computer keyboard". So just like the "T" of "Things" was added recently to SMAC, the "A" of AI will be added soon too. And shortly after that the "3" of 3D-printing, a "D" for drones, the "N" of Nano-technology or any character (X) about any new tech some IT- or media-people are intrigued about, and, probably it will be written in green to express the importance of clean energy and the tech around it. So something like SMACTA3DNX (pronounced as green-smacta-three-deenix :)).

Well, having said that and coming back to the drawbacks, people using all this tech obviously don't care about some consequences. Not to be sad but just to give some examples connecting to above list: 

  • Social Media: obviously no one cares that our most private conversations with others are stored on servers ready to be hacked by villains or analyzed by our governments, employers, vendors;
  • Mobile: obviously everybody accepts that carrying a mobile phone makes it possible to always have the exact position of the owner anywhere on earth;
  • Analytics: with personal adds, we now see what we already bought or lost interest in. No new ideas, just old news. The next stage is even more frighting: we'll see what our recent contacts prefer;
  • Cloud (internet): well, that's privacy and security at its worst. Internet down, an announced smart-hub upgrade, all information and software protecting your house ready to be hacked on some server somewhere;
  • Things: all (home) devices connected to each other and the internet? My agenda, thermostat, door-locks, lights, anything open for hackers? Or the government "protecting us"?
  • And my favorite, AI: Since I'm deaf, speech recognition has my special interest because it would make deaf people communicate with anyone like hearing people do. Well, whatever claims there are about Cortana, Siri, Alexa or Google Home, as an experienced AI-speech user I can tell you it's still a playground, a lab experiment and even dangerous. By itself it's quite spectacular and promissing technology but today it only works for just a little bit in a silent environment so forget your car, other people talking in the room, radio playing, outdoors in the city, busy offices. We all know the jokes about "Call Mom" while driving in a car but imagine your AI personal assistant really misunderstands you with an instruction you give her/him/it. Or do you really want to share everything and ask some "intelligence" about every personal information you have, for example regarding your bank accounts, agenda's, all email and messages, contacts, everything? And if not, what is the use for it then?
I find it really frightning that in the adds of tech-vendors exactly the above examples are shown to express the benefits of their products. "Share everything with your friends all the time" ... "Follow your children with our app" ... "Buy your favorites" ... "Your home is in the cloud" ... "Connect everything" ... "Talk to your home".
 
Well meanwhile, lets just enjoy our gadgets and be a little patient for the real stuff to come, maybe sooner than you think. For now it's change, innovation and some learning.
 
Have fun trying :D.