A Big Shift in Engineering: From Product to Society

Abstract

IoT (Internet of Things) is creating a completely different world: What this World 2.0 is different from the traditional world is humans and products work together as a team. In traditional engineering, humans gave instructions from outside and products responded. It is verbal and conversation based. But with the increasing changes, humans need to be in the system to perceive and understand the current situations and to make appropriate decisions. Thus, adaptability becomes more important than functions, which are reproducibility-based. And IoT is internet-based. Internet is communication based and speakers and receivers share the commons and the receiver understands what the speaker has on his mind, or, in other words, the receiver can assume the intent of the speaker, although it may not be verbally expressed. Such big differences of World 2.0 calls for a new perspective in engineering. Engineering up to now are product-focused and its approaches are material science-based. But to realize World 2.0, we must remove the wall between material science and life science and establish the world where living and non-living things can work together. Therefore, engineering tomorrow is no more product-based, and we will not be paying our efforts to develop better products, but we will be developing a society where humans and products can work and live together. In short, we will be developing a new society.