The Internet of Creatures

What if we could connect the entire earth's biosphere with the web? Analogous to the Internet of Things (IoT) we could have the Internet of Creatures (IoC).

Technology for this exists today. Imagine a thermometer that measures the temperature of an oak tree. This temperature measurement could be exposed to the web (via an API endpoint).

Another use case would be a neurologger for a pigeon that connects with the bird's brain. This information could as well be exposed via an interface to the web. Neurologger brain implants for animals exist today.

So doing the next step and exposing that information to the web is a rather small one.

An even more sophisticated possibility is an electronic plant. The biological system of a rose was successfully connected to an electronic system. So in this way there is information exchanged on the level of atoms.

Granted, this is still in the research stage, but you could imagine a world in which the biosphere is connected in an intricate way with the web of the internet.

This would enable us to empathize more with the world's creatures.

References

• Electronic plants, November 2015, Science Advances, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/10/e1501136

• Angel Oak image by Mike Norton, CC BY 2.0 license

• Rose image by Susanne Nilsson, CC BY-SA 2.0 license