14: The Earth Will Don An Electronic Skin

The skin is an uncanny piece of engineering. It processes immense amounts of data on temperature, pressure, humidity, and texture. It registers movement in the air, gauges the size of objects by the distance between points of contact, alerts us to danger, and prepares us for pleasure. But the skin does more than register superficial events--it's a controller. It sends signals to regulate blood flow, activate sweat glands, alert immune cells to marauding invaders, and block ultraviolet light. Even when skin dies, it is utilitarian: Dead cells accumulate in layers to prevent unwanted penetration.

In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies--even our dreams.