An extensive opinion essay on the pax technica by John Thornhill in FT:

Is this internet of things going to set us free or lock us up? That question is the subtitle of a book called Pax Technica by Philip Howard, a professor at the Oxford Internet Institute. It was also the subject of a recent conference at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge university. Mr Howard argues that the internet of things is emerging as the most powerful political tool ever created, challenging and, in some respects, supplanting the authority of the most successful form of political organisation for the past 500 years, the nation state.