Wait! Don’t go! Let’s talk about integrating biology, physical and digital systems.
Well beyond the promise of 3-D manufacturing is a new wave of innovation in manufacturing. A few of the talking heads like to call this new wave “digital manufacturing” and they’ve decided it’s built on just five “cornerstones”:
· Electronics
· Computer Systems
· Communications Technologies
· Software
· Cyber Infrastructure
So what does this have to do with text messaging? A whole bunch if you ask me – and it has little to do with marketing. In fact, I think text messaging is more of an enabling technology for the operational guts and integration of these so called five “cornerstones” of digital manufacturing.
First and foremost text messaging checks all five boxes:
· Electronics – think of your iPhone, Android, tablet, laptop or computer. Also think of IoT devices and how they all use text messages or initiate triggered messages.
· Computer Systems – text messaging systems are basically impossible without computer systems. The little messages that move from phone to phone are completely dependent on huge data centers, telephone networks and communication systems.
· Communication technologies – text messaging is one of the most prolific communication technologies on the planet today with billions of messages being exchanged every day across the global population.
· Software – yep, text messaging systems are designed and built with software. When to send, who to send to and a host of rules and governors restrict and manage the messages.
· Cyber infrastructure – can you send a text message without the all inclusive/pervasive cyber infrastructure (cell phone networks, VOIP, cable, fiber optic networks, etc.). Nope!
Second, it is an enabling technology that makes it possible for people to understand what is happening in the ecosystems and digital systems around them. Consider the following statement from the Manufacturing Leadership Council: “Manufacturers should expect a changing computer landscape as biological, physical and digital systems converge to offer more options.”
The prior quote is noteworthy and makes sense if only for two reasons: one – Elon Musk has been talking about brain machine interfaces with his Neuralink company and although I’m not necessarily a fan of Elon, I’m also not a critic and frankly it’s hard to ignore the companies he has built: Tesla, SpaceX, X.com (merged with Confinity to form PayPal) and StarLink (satellite internet service). Yes, I know StarLink is operated by SpaceX but I think it’s a disruptive development that is too easily buried in SpaceX given the extreme cost and time needed to build out fiber optic networks by Google, Facebook, AT&T and many others.
Recently I sat through a presentation with Dr. Philip Kennedy, a neuroscientist that “hacked his brain” with a brain-machine interface. As he explained his self-experiment and his joint venture with DarkPulse (DPLS), a provider of fiber optics based sensing systems, I thought the whole thing was a little weird – but in my own limited readings I can point to manufacturers, Elon Musk and many others that are chasing the dream of integrating biology, physical and digital systems.
Sensors and the deployment of IoT devices are a big deal in the manufacturing sector and somewhere in the middle of all this technology, invention and innovation, these sensors will need to send messages to people; real humans in real time, in simple language that they understand; and they won’t always be on a web site, or in a web portal (miners deep underground, oil rig workers in the middle of the Gulf, or manufacturing workers at your local factory). However, they will very likely have their cell phone or some other type of mobile device on their body (watches, rings, clothing, glasses, etc.) and they will benefit immensely from a real-time notification system that speaks to them in simple language.
I think the Manufacturer’s Leadership Council has it right when they identify the convergence of biological, physical and digital systems. And although it will come together differently within every company and community, text messaging has a lot to offer companies that are pushing all five cornerstones together.