The network that over the last couple of decades has connected people to one other, to information and to online entertainment is now spreading into the physical world, bringing hundreds of millions of new objects online. Within a few years it may be impossible to buy an electrical device that does not come—by default—with internet connectivity and some kind of online or app-based service layer.

But in a world in which objects and environments can belch out information all the time and take instructions over the ether, how can we cope with the sheer amount of information - and how on earth are we going to interact with it?