Silicon, security and the Internet of things

A Google search on the Internet of Things (IoT) suggests that a multitude of smart devices will soon be talking to each other and deciding how the world operates without our (human) intervention. Fantasy stories on the Internet want us to believe that every atom on earth could be chattering away on a network someday. This sounds futuristic and completely detached from reality, but the IoT is already here, in the form of the smart grid.