Between Frost & Sullivan’s presentation on integration vs interoperability and a presentation from the security manager of an NHS Trust came a strange warning.
“A standard sized pot of yoghurt could have the same IQ as all the people in Europe – in around 20 years time,” said Ian Pearson, a futurologist speaking at the Global Security Summit.
His presentation was a bizarre, thought-provoking one with warnings of zombies taking over the planet and predictions of retina-sized iPads.
Smart dust
Pearson gave a warning over the continued miniaturisation of technology as being one of the biggest threats to organisations in the next 5-10 years and the development of so-called ‘smart dust’ – tiny microeletromechanical systems that communicate wirelessly.
He said: “We’ve gone from a quarter ton of technology in the early 90’s to an iPhone 5 today. But there’ll only be a few more generations of iPhones and then Apple will wake up and move away from this.
“Where we’re heading is smart dust.
“We’re used to the idea of smart dust being 1 or 2 cm across. The latest smart dust is 50 microns across (the smallest thing you can see is 100 microns across).”
Imagine a scenario were someone sprinkles smart dust onto your computer keyboard, where it picks up what you’re typing and has broadcast the confidential data before your computer has even had a chance to scan for a virus.
Or even more incredibly, said Pearson, a scenario where you breathe in smart dust so that it connects to your nervous system – when you think ‘What’s my PIN again?’ the smart dust as already intercepted it, broadcast it and hacked into your bank account.
This kind of technology might seem fanciful, but it’s theoretically already possible.
The threat of tiny intelligent particles to an organisation’s security is almost unquantifiable. In order to protect against it, you first have to imagine the scale of the threat.
Active skin
With nanotechnology this nano however, imagine the improved security measures your business could employ as well.
Biometric fingerprint readers are vulnerable to someone stealing a fingerprint. But wouldn’t they be safer if a finger also contained a complex PIN algorithm, with the data stored between a person’s skin cells?
Ian thinks you could get 4mb of data onto a single skin cell – leading to tens of thousands of transistors in a square cm of skin, all networked using infrared to create a truly powerful device in the palm of our hands (well, fingers).
You will also be using those 3D printers we’ve all heard so much about to create your own electrical devices. A security guard might be able to intercept a phone or a laptop, but an electronic device disguised as a piece of jewellery would be harder to find.
Zombie apocalypse
The ‘logical’ conclusion of all of this miniaturisation, Ian says, is smart bacteria cultivated with a huge computing power. A single pot of ‘smart yoghurt’ could contain 20 million bacteria, each with a computing core within them.
“A standard sized pot of yoghurt could have the same IQ as all the people in Europe – in around 20 years time. Those bacteria could be biologically adapted to survive just about any environment.
“This is the Terminator scenario – except at least in Terminator 1, 2 and 3 you could see them. In 4 you’ll be breathing them in.
“I haven’t got any clue how to make the world secure in 25 years time, when smart bacteria has taken over.”
He went further, describing a not-too-distant future of zombies, again already theoretically possible:
“You would expect zombies to appear around 2060. Your kids will have really good fun trying to work out where the zombies will come from.
“Zombies are not just science fiction. We have some great ideas about why this might be real, why the military might want it to be real.
“This isn’t a security threat – you’re not worried about it, but your kids will have to be.”
And there I was worrying about climate change.
Photo credit: michele_brl – (www.unintentional.org) / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
