The emergence of the IOT, The IOE and such minor collateral developments as self evolving robots is the extension of an on-going evolutionary process that has been, in principle, very predictable since the middle of the last century. Gordon Moore’s quantification of one contributory aspect being an example
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One should not lose sight of the wider implications that arise from viewing the IOT/IOE not from the usual parochial angle of individual devices but rather as the latest manifestation of the exponential growth of technology which has occurred within the medium of shared human imagination over the past two million years. Itself a part of a greater evolutionary process that can be traced at least as far back as the formation of chemical elements in stars.

While such considerations may, at first glance, seem to have little practical import it may well be that public awareness of such issues may have a profound impact on the future survival prospects for our species.

For from this perspective we can safely predict the emergence of the next phase of the process, the imminent emergence of a new predominant cognitive entity of which the IOE is, of course, a precursor..

The broad evolutionary model which supports this assertion is detailed in my latest book “The Intricacy Generator: Pushing Chemistry and Geometry Uphill”. which is available through Amazon, etc.