I really loved this talk between Cory Doctorow and Tim O’Reilly
The purpose of the IoT is to give humans superpowers
A lot of our Internet of Things models proceed from the idea that a human emits a beacon and you gather as much information as you can — often in a very adversarial way — about that human, and then you make predictions about what that human wants, and then you alert them. What if instead you had a device or a device ecosystem that was local to you, that didn’t share your information with anyone else, that gathered information that you gave voluntarily because it was just for your own benefit — myware, not spyware.
Then, as you moved through the world, other things emitted information about themselves. Your device took them in, looked at your very intimate, not-for-sharing preferences, and presented you with options, rather than treating you as an ambulatory wallet to try and game into admitting dollars. If you think about every offer that every business that you pass today might make to you, it adds up to a gig or two. We can handle that in our sleep. Why are we trying to tailor which information comes to you? Why aren’t they all promiscuously broadcasting, then you receive them and filter them at your end using your device that can keep your secrets for you?
This is why I haven’t gone in on any ‘smart’ devices yet – I keep looking for a self hosted personal assistant… and if it talks to any server, I’d like it to be one of mine.