"Now the zero-marginal cost revolution is beginning to affect other commercial sectors. The precipitating agent is an emerging general-purpose technology platform - the internet of things. The convergence of the communications internet with the fledgling renewable energy internet and automated logistics internet in a smart, inter-operable internet-of-things system is giving rise to a third industrial revolution."
The third of the four principles of multicellular systems is that much of the communication between cooperating entities (cells, social insects or computers) is indirect. The entities deposit long-lived cues in external structures -- connective tissue, te