The internet of things: what role will humans play?
The talk at this year's World Economic Forum in January was of a new technology-powered industrial revolution that's going to disrupt the world economy; about how the internet of things will fundamentally change the way all the physical things in our lives work, from shoes to glucose monitors to cars and beyond. Everything will be programmable, trackable and use data to optimise its performance.
But for anyone who's already nervous about drones fighting our wars, robots taking our jobs, and the fact that there are now more connected devices than people on the planet, the internet of things is yet more proof that machines might have more say over our lives than we will.
The problem is that most of the discussion about the internet of things is based on machine-to-machine (M2M) communications where connected, computerised objects talk to other connected, computerised objects autonomously, making useful things happen on our behalf. Adjusting the energy usage of our household appliances, say, supervising the heating pumps in our buildings, or tracking the fleets of trucks delivering our groceries.
But it's far from clear the role that people are supposed to play in all this. A major design challenge for the internet of things is how machines will let humans have their say; what controls do we have when the familiar things around us – from boilers and fridges to hedge trimmers – get connected and start behaving in unfamiliar ways? Particularly when they don't work how they're supposed to. Will we need to call technical support to configure our kettles for a cup of tea?
The obvious answer, at least in the near future, is to mirror the way we use other smart digital technologies in our connected lives. We ask search engines questions, we follow and "friend" individuals on social networks, we use mobile devices to access all the information, tools and services we need. This is how we interact with people, content and systems on the web, so why can't we connect with physical things in the same way?
In 2014, the technology already exists for us to do this. With smart software in the cloud plus smartphones as our remote controls for the physical world – packed with sensors, wireless connectivity and a web browser – we're all carrying around the infrastructure for the internet of things in our pockets and the means to digitally interact with the physical objects that surround us.
Consider connected product company Nest which recently sold to Google for $3.2bn (£1.9bn). According to founder and CEO Tony Fadell, when they look around the home for mundane household products to reinvent, "we don't see a smoke alarm; we see a smartphone with a fire sensor." 
This kind of connectivity massively multiplies the number of digital interfaces around us. We can, in effect, friend our stuff, so products become interactive and adaptive to our needs, personalising the experience of owning and using them based on constant data feedback.
Cars can message us when they need re-charging, food products can suggest healthy recipes or alert us to product recalls, blood pressure monitors can keep our medical records up to date and prompt us to exercise, and the next time your washing machine gives you that error code, you can ask it what it means.
Like many technologies, the internet of things is best considered from the perspective of adoption rather than purely invention. How will people interact with the new innovations they are supposed to benefit from? If passively – by having useful services invisibly accomplished for them – then what input should they have in how this happens? If actively engaging in how these services are carried out, then what physical and digital interfaces do they need? It's worth remembering what Vint Cerf, godfather of TCP/IP, said about writing the script for the pre-things internet 40 years ago: "We thought we were building a system to connect computers together. But we quickly learned that it's a system for connecting people."
Andy Hobsbawm is a founder and the chief marketing officer of web of things software company EVRYTHNG. He will be speaking at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit 18-19 March.
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