A thing can be a person

[GoodTaste]

It appears to me that "A thing in the internet of things can be a person" has a hint of insulting in traditional English, for "a thing is a thing" while "a person is a person" - it is like you can't call a person as "it" (but you can call a thing as it) unless you want to insult the person.

The internet may have sufficiently changed this traditional English thinking pattern, I am not sure.

Does "A thing in the internet of things can be a person" have a hint of insulting to you?

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The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.


A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is able to transfer data over a network.

Source: IoT Agenda

 

[GoodTaste]

So a person can be "it" and the listener feels no problem?

 

[Rover_KE]

So a person can be "it" and the listener feels no problem?

Yes.

RODERICK: Dad, somebody at the door wants to talk to you.

DAD: Who is it?

***

BLODWEN: Who's that standing next to you in this photograph?

BRONWEN: It's my sister.

 

[Glizdka]

DAD: Who is it?

BRONWEN: It's my sister.

Not a teacher
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Is it in these examples a dummy pronoun?

 

[GoodTaste]

Your problem with thing might disappear if I italicise a few words to the original:


A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is able to transfer data over a network.


As Wikipedia tells us:

The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

In that case, "A thing in the internet of things can be a heart monitor that is implanted in a person" would be more accurate, because "a thing is a thing"; "a thing is a person (with whatsoever)" doesn't sound natural enough or doesn't sound natural at all.

 

[GoodTaste]

Yes.

RODERICK: Dad, somebody at the door wants to talk to you.

DAD: Who is it?

***

BLODWEN: Who's that standing next to you in this photograph?

BRONWEN: It's my sister.

That's natural and useful.

Some materials I read tend to dismiss "it", like this:

 

[GoesStation]

The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder … or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is able to transfer data over a network.

In that case, "A thing in the internet of things can be a heart monitor that is implanted in a person" would be more accurate, because "a thing is a thing"; "a thing is a person (with whatsoever)" doesn't sound natural enough or doesn't sound natural at all.

You are again forgetting that you are not a native speaker. As such, you aren't really equipped to judge whether something "sounds natural".

It's not normally appropriate to call a person a "thing". But the context establishes that the object in question is not solely a person; it's the combination of a person and an internet-connected device. In this and similar contexts, the author's usage is natural and not in any way disparaging.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Like a lot of things in English, it depends.

In some contexts, using it or that has no unkind connotation. In some, it does.

And in some cases, people will disagree. For instance, I don't like that when who will fit, as in "I know a person that speaks seven languages." But to lots of people it sounds fine.

In a discussion of the so-called internet of things, I can't see any way around including people who have internet-connected implants in the internet of things. After all, the person is just connected to the device. It's the device that's connected to the internet.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You are again forgetting that you are not a native speaker. As such, you aren't really equipped to judge whether something "sounds natural".

It's not normally appropriate to call a person a "thing". But the context establishes that the object in question is not solely a person; it's the combination of a person and an internet-connected device. In this and similar contexts, the author's usage is natural and not in any way disparaging.

Your Like button isn't visible, but I like it.

 

[GoesStation]

Your Like button isn't visible, but I like it.

That happens when a reply to a post goes up while you're writing a reply to the same post. Just refresh the page and the Like button will appear.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
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In Pirates of the Caribbean, Will Turner says "I practice three hours a day so when I meet a pirate, I can kill it". I'm sure he deliberately chose the dehumanizing pronoun it. Other than that, unless you want to dehumanize someone, don't use it.

 

[jutfrank]

You have to think of the Internet of Things as a fixed name that can't be changed. The sentence is saying that a person can be one of these things.

Think of the word 'thing' as a much more general, abstract noun, of which people are just one type.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Not a teacher
------
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Will Turner says "I practice three hours a day so when I meet a pirate, I can kill it". I'm sure he deliberately chose the dehumanizing pronoun it. Other than that, unless you want to dehumanize someone, don't use it.

Exactly. In the movie Alfie, playboy Alfie (Michael Caine) always calls women it.