The Data Stack Show - The PRQL: Are you afraid of IOT?

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

In this PRQL, Eric and Kostas preview their upcoming conversation with Rob Rastovich of ThingLogix, Inc.

All right, Costas, we just got done talking with someone who is immersed in the world of IoT, and that stands for Internet of Things, although this guest talked about sort of the Internet of Everything, which is really interesting. I think what I loved about the conversation was how we talked about data and infrastructure, but we talked about how the technology really enables new types of business models, which I thought was just really, really interesting. And the guest really is making a big bet on IoT as sort of the next major thing, having experience going through the coming of age of the cloud. What do you think about IoT? Is it going to become as pervasive as our guest?

Actually, to your point, it was very fascinating hearing from him about this concept of humans actually mirroring the technology. Oh yeah, that was- So it's like this kind of request-reply kind of model, request-response. And he's actually talking more about a reactive kind of model. There is also this kind of development, like the reactive programming model and things like this, where events are flowing and you react to these events. That part of how we mimic the technology, I think it's very interesting. And we need to move to a

reactive kind of model. If we are talking about IoT and introducing many more devices that generate this kind of data, because there's no way that we can just store this data and then process the data and then do something with the data, right? That's also why we are talking that much about edge computing and how we can move more computing power towards the devices, how the devices can become smarter, how we can build models, AI models, for example, that they can run like on these devices.

But anyway, before, and that's what I think was like a great point from Rob, is that before we solve these great and very interesting problems, there are some infrastructure issues that still we have like to figure out. Like, for example, he was talking about when I go to my field out there, the problem that I have is that I don't have Wi-Fi there. There's no way I can communicate with all these devices that I would like to have there.

Figuring these more elementary, let's say, problems, I think it's still a work in progress when it comes to IoT. I think we are going to see more and more of these devices being deployed. I think these devices are being deployed more than we

think. Industries like, as he said, like in agriculture, probably in heavy industries like in oil fields like in places like this that okay, it's not me and you go and walk around there. But yeah, we'll see more and more of IoT around.

We probably only have time for this last question. Are you personally scared or do you have fear around all of these devices collecting everything? And I'll put a sharper point on that. Yeah. A lot of times there are two camps of people. Some people who say, okay, look, I don't want every device, this microphone, whatever my

coffee cup recording, all this stuff about my life. Like there's sort of resistant against that. Then there's another camp. That's like your phone already has all that information anyways, and you carry it around in your pocket and it has, it knows when you're sleeping and all that sort of stuff so like who cares so where do you fall on the spectrum yeah actually that's a very interesting question i don't know if like one minute is enough to go through that because actually you have a minute and 23 seconds yeah actually like this idea that like our phones are recording us so that's why we talk about like

my toothpaste and you go open your phone and suddenly you get like targeted by colgate or something so that actually doesn't happen it's not how it works actually they don't need to do that that's the crazy thing there's a very interesting thread on twitter i'll try to find it, where there is someone who knows about how these things are implemented. And he explains exactly how these things work. And actually, they don't need to build something like this to figure out all this information. And it has to do a lot with how adopted the technology is. So they have so much information about about because we always carry our phone for example right about where i am with who i am talking then they can relate and see that the

person that i'm talking with is like eric and eric doesn't have both from amazon toothpaste lately and probably it's a good idea like to try and put like something there and we might also be like chatting about these things and then you are going to make like the relationship in your mind and be like oh like look what's going on here like someone is listening to what we are talking so there is already like a lot a lot a lot much more information than we think about ourselves out there now do i worry i would say yes and no in the sense that i'm not like one of these people that they are like i don't want any of this to happen like i don't care that much but i believe that like whatever we do as humans we always need to do some kind of retrospective

and like whatever issues are created because of the technologies that we are introducing without stopping progress, right? Go back and fix, right? So, yeah, like let's put it in another way. If a technology can be used, for example, by pedophiles, I think that everyone is going to agree that we should secure this technology, right? To not let them find children. Like we should do this technology, right? To not let them find children. We should do that with everything. And we are going to fail in the process because every piece of technology is something new.

That's how we learn as humans. We make mistakes, right? But we shouldn't be afraid. I mean, that's, I think, something that fear is probably the worst thing that can happen around this stuff. Be aware. Make sure that we are informed. And whenever something goes wrong, go there and fix it.

I always love a philosophical perspective. I know. That's why I'm doing that. It's your heritage after all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thanks. Amazing episode coming up where we talk all about the Internet of Things,

the data infrastructure behind it, and how it's being applied today on a cattle ranch in Oregon. So you're definitely going to want to check this episode out. Yeah. And from a person who has been in technology

for like a very long time and has so many stories to share. Absolutely. All right. Well make sure to keep an eye out and subscribe. So you get notified of this upcoming episode.