The Internet Of Things

The word internet is more familiar to many than the phrase Internet of Things, but the concepts the latter refers to are distinct from the former in a way that parallels metaphysics far more foundational than technology could possibly be.  The internet is the collective of webpages and online services that so many devices connect with today, while every laptop, smartphone, gaming console, tablet, and "smart" home device (like a wifi-enabled thermostat) fall into the Internet of Things--the physical objects that connect with the internet.  Some people use the words physical and digital separately, and rightly so: a digital version of a product like a book or a video game is not made of matter.  It is a construct of the digital world.

The physical world is not the digital world, for the digital world is nonphysical despite having a seeming causal reliance on the physical world (though even perfect correlations like this cannot be proven to be anything more than just that, perception-based correlations).  It is impossible to grasp a webpage or a digital book because there is no solid page to touch, just the physical components of the hardware, which runs with its own immaterial software, that is used to either project or access the internet or digital products obtained through the internet.  The Internet of Things is what allows someone to take advantage of the virtual world and view items or text with no physical substance whatsoever.

Depending on how broad the scope of objects referred to is, the phrase Internet of Things could refer to the physical devices that project the internet so that other devices can use them, or to both the physical items that sustain (servers and routers) or connect (like smartphones) with the internet.  It could also reference objects that interact with Bluetooth, which is usually categorized separately from the likes of WiFi or LTE connections despite being extremely similar, with its inherent pairing of devices being the distinguishing characteristics.  Words only matter as a malleable way to communicate things, so the real issue is about the nature of the internet, the objects associated with it, and how this parallels or is unique compared to the metaphysics of other things.

Even if they think the opposite, everyone who speaks of some things as digital and some as physical is already talking as if it is true (and it is both true and provable) that the internet is immaterial, just like people who use different words for "me" and "my body."  This distinction between hardware technology and the nonphysical world that it can create parallels the differences between consciousness and matter, with matter including the body that a mind perceives.  In this context, the physical could create the immaterial and vice versa, and it is impossible to demonstrate whether it is physical particles contributing to objects that gave rise to nonphysical consciousness or conscious perception of an individual that creates and/or holds matter in existence.  In fact, proving that matter of any kind exists is far beyond the worldviews of most people, who tend to assume that there is an external world on the fallacies of epistemological faith, even most people who gravitate towards a fascination with the laws of nature.

It is unclear which brings the other into existence because sensory perceptions are not logical proofs.  Either of these causal relationships is logically possible in that there is no contradiction in them on their own, as mind and matter are still metaphysically distinct and epistemologically knowable through separate proofs.  With the Internet of Things and the internet itself, there is a very close parallel with the physical body and immateriality of consciousness although the causal relationship is not as significant as it is for the knowable existence of consciousness and matter.  The internet might not have the ability to perceive and grasp the laws of logic, but it is nonphysical just like consciousness (and the laws of logic, which also transcend the mind) and correlates to the status of physical objects that project it.  Moderners are surrounded by artificial parallels to the substance dualism of mind an body and might go a lifetime without realizing any of this!