So, will the future of the Internet and by implication of the global society be bright or gloomy?
The Internet has never been a particularly effective medium for connecting people to people. The Internet is a very effective in connecting people to PCs initially and now to IoT by allowing people to act out fake personas. Internet is where people are actors in the digital village of fools. It is here where people can act out roles and desires they'd never dare to act out just a couple of decades ago. Today, the Internet has cut through any inhibitions humans may have had; thus unleashed into the world people's vilest and most grotesque desires. It has created social meeting pods where any one's desires and idiocies would find likeminded partners.
In the meantime and for the foreseeable future the trend of manipulating minds throrough IoTs - and they are everwhere - will continue.
To be continued … or not?