Fear Not Distribution that Works [Open Letter

Abstract

We recently attended the inaugural Digital FutureofWorkSummit at New York University where Michael Chui, Partner at the McKinseyGlobal Institute emphatically responded to a question saying: I'm more afraid of income inequality than I am of Skynet! Two weeks later, we attended the IEEE RFID Conference in Phoenix where Professor Katina Michael equally emphatically responded to a question saying: I'm afraid that [Skynet] will exacerbate the problem of income inequality! ¡Hasta la vista, middle class! Will that really be the outcome of pervasive computing and the In ternet of Things (IoT)? Because you can argue that we are building the equivalent of Skynet, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2017.2738080 Date of publication: 7 September 2017 the collective machine intelligence antagonist in the Ter minator film franchise, albeit with the opposite intent - our vision is ubiquitous machine-contextual-awareness at the service of humanity. What we see instead is the emergence of a Pervasive Sharing Economy which will empower resources, both material and human, to advertise and optimize their utility. And the pioneering spirit of the Internet and its proponents provides cause for optimism, as we argue in our post Vint Cerf and the Good Fight for the IoT. Ultimately, however, financial interests will determine if and sEpT E M B E R 2 0 1 7 / IEEE TEcHNoloGy AND SocIETy MAGAzINE OPEN LETTER Fear Not Distribution that Works when this vision is realized. That is why we argue for Investing in a Value-First Sharing Economy. Investing in the paradigm of connecting rather than collecting information is perhaps all it takes to reverse our collective fear: How will we distribute the unprecedented amount of value unlocked through massive gains in efficiency? http://reelyactive.com/blo g/ archives/1173