SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – When technology breaks down now, people’s lives go haywire, too.
Wednesday’s confounding confluence of computer outages at United Airlines, the New York Stock Exchange and The Wall Street Journal delivered a jolting reminder about our deepening dependence on interconnected networks to get through each day.
For the most part, technology has worked smoothly while hatching innovations and conveniences that have made our lives easier and our jobs more productive. Computers, though, could bring more frequent headaches as they link together with billions of other electronic devices and household appliances- a phenomenon that has become known as the “Internet of things.”
This technological daisy chain will increase the complexity of the systems and raise the risks of massive breakdowns, either through an inadvertent glitch or a malicious attack.
“The problem is humans can’t keep up with all the technology they have created,” said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner. “It’s becoming unmanageable by the human brain. Our best hope may be that computers eventually will become smart enough to maintain themselves.”