Discuss the dark side of IoT

The internet of things offers many potential benefits, whether as simple as a better cup of coffee or as complex as organizing city traffic. But increasingly, technologists and academics have pointed to its dark side: the enabling of constant surveillance as well as the potential for basic utilities, such as the power grid, to be hacked.

A/D/O, the newly opened makerspace in Greenpoint, is hosting a discussion Monday night on those potentially grim consequences — and what various groups can do to prevent them, or at least blunt their impact. The conversation, entitled “The Internet of Very Bad, No Good Things,” will be led by Susan Cox-Smith, a partner and creative strategist at Changeist, an Amsterdam-based futurist consulting firm, and Greg Lindsay, a journalist and fellow at the New Cities Foundation. The free, public panel will run from 6-8 p.m. (It will be preceded by an invite-only afternoon workshop.)

Register

The panel is part of A/D/O’s ongoing series “Utopia vs. Dystopia.” (It’s a theme that seems to be on the minds of many Brooklyn technologists these days.) In addition to the events such as tonight’s panel, A/D/O has commissioned a set of video and design installations around the theme by architecture and design firms, including Dumbo’s Inaba Williams.