2015: The Year a Person Becomes a Thing on the Internet of Things

The subject line is my prediction for 2015.  I am not the only one gazing into the crystal ball and reading the tea leaves there.   Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity Corporation, a provider of single sign-on and identity management software sees it and expresses it here:


"Prediction No. 4: The IoT will become the Identity of Things
Biometrics will go mainstream and natural UIs will evolve at a fast rate, driven by the IoT. Consistent user experience (UX) for binding identities to things will be more and more recognized as critical for usability and meaningful consent."

When does a person become a thing on the Internet of Things (IoT)?  Maybe when they have an Identity locked to the thing connected to the IoT.  The granular identity of a thing on the IoT is an IP address.

IoT defined here by Wikipedia.

The technology roadmap at this link displays the progress of IoT.  The last step in the roadmap is "software agents and advanced sensor fusion".  That, of course is just the step before what comes next in the time line and that is not given so I will project it:  Human beings become the unique software agents fused with advanced sensors.  Their bodies have an Information Age soul identified by an IPv6 address.  Also at the Wikipedia link:  "In an Internet of Things, the precise geographic location of a thing—and also the precise geographic dimensions of a thing—will be critical."  When a person is a thing on the internet of things their physical location becomes an important data element.

Physical thing devices on the IoT will be identified at the granular level by an IPv6 address.  For all practical purposes the number of unique IPv6 granular unique distinct address available is infinite.  Actually, a number to a power that I can't even imagine.  It will be a long time before IPv6 runs out of numbers. 

When does a person, a unique individual human being, become a thing on the IoT?  It all depends on the degree of binding between the identity of the person to the identity of the thing they are associated with that has a IPv6 address.  For example:  What is the tightest possible degree of binding between a person and their unique identity?  The absolutely absolute binding?  

Body and soul.  Of course that is the binding of a living person.  When that binding is broken the person is in the history file as far as temporal time is concerned for the body.  The eternity file for the soul.  Some believe that, if it matters.  Others believe we are just history.

Body and soul are tight binding in a living person.  

When a person becomes as tightly bound to their IPv6 identifier that they do not exist without it then they are a thing on the IoT to the absolute degree.  Their physical being and logical existence on the internet are bound together like body and soul.  If a person does not have an IPv6 identity they are stateless.  They have no state of being in the definition terms of the computer based information age.  They have no state.  In other words, "Stateless".

State and Stateless are discussed here.

What happens when the Internet of Things meets Artificial Intelligence?  Some thought provoking observations at this link.

When does a person become a thing on the IoT?  Maybe the best determining factor is when a persons identity is definitely/absolutely determined in relation to their device on the internet of things and the location of the device/person is transmitted to the internet.  In other words:  When a device is conclusively linked to a person in time and place.  The person is therefore absolutely fixed in time and place because the person's thing is absolutely fixed in time and place.  The time and place may be a snapshot of a given time and place or a real time (for some length of time beyond a snapshot) continuous data of current time and place.

For example:  If a person has a heart pacemaker or artificial heart in their body that has internet connectivity (IP address on the IoT) then that person is a thing on the IoT.  The nature of IoT connectivity may be reporting to a medical center for monitoring in real time.  The person and their device are inseparable!

Another  example:  A person pays for an item at checkout (brick and mortar store) using an iPhone with Apple Pay and their fingerprint ID.  A snapshot in time and place goes into a sales record.  For that instant the person was a thing on the IoT.  Absolutely identified in time and place by association to their device.  

There are many degrees of "soft" association of a person to their device that relate to probability that a certain person is in fact the person associated with the device. 

For example:  A license plate reader scans a car license going through a red light or a car simply parked or in motion anywhere for any reason.  It is likely, to some degree of probability that the registered owner of the vehicle is in it, if occupied or nearby if it is parked in their driveway but maybe not if they are parked in an airport parking lot unless the time of entry to the parking lot is more than a couple hours or lesser probability if the car is in long term parking.  At one time in history as documented by time of entry to the parking lot the probability is absolute that somebody was associated with the vehicle (unless it is a Google drive) and that someone was likely the owner or someone associated with the owner.

In the prior example the same goes for a cell phone identified by an IMSI.  In that case the probability is high that the person carrying it is the person paying the bill or making the call unless it is a business phone but then the business that owns the phone has a record of the person using it.

We will be getting progressively closer by degrees to becoming locked into a device with an IP address on the IoT as it increasingly requires a personal biometric verification to enable access to the Internet.  It may often be several data factors that combined might conclusively identify a person to time an place on the IoT.  That would be the equivalent of a single biometric identifier like a fingerprint.

If my style of writing this blog entry could be input to an AI program that had access to everything else written on this blog (and/or elsewhere) it could determine that it was me writing this and the geographic location where it was written.  When I talked to my insurance company the other day it had the number I was calling from (caller ID) without me giving it and checked my voice print against its history of conversation file.  Most likely me but they also asked for last four and birthday just to be sure.  They called me a valued customer for 50 years affiliation (just had that anniversary and there was certainly a notification on the customer rep screen to recognize my status and thank me for my business.  Actually I am just a thing, always was, still am.  A thing on the IoT to the insurance company.