The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project released a report last week proclaiming that the Internet of Things will exist by the year 2025. In our second look at the report, we examine what exactly the Internet of Things will entail.

The Internet of Things essentially refers to a deeply connected world: cars, appliances, cities, and wearable devices all communicating with each other  and exchanging data.

The Pew report is the result of asking 1,600 experts one question:

"The evolution of embedded devices and the Internet/Cloud of Things -- As billions of devices, artifacts, and accessories are networked, will the Internet of Things have widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025?"

A little over 80 percent of the respondents said "yes," and Pew found six main themes. Here's a look at the themes along with some of the experts' answers on the matter.

Theme 1: The Internet of Things and wearable computing will progress significantly between now and 2025.

"Adaptive ensembles of wearable and embedded devices will be commonly applied by 2025 for fashion, entertainment, communications, health, fitness, productivity, facilities, and the environment," said Mike Liebhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow with the Institute for the Future.

"Both Google Glass and Samsung watches are very early, crude prototypes for much more interesting and useful devices that will be widely used by 2025."

Theme 2: The realities of this data-drenched world raise substantial concerns about privacy and people's abilities to control their own lives. If everyday activities are monitored and people are generating informational outputs, the level of profiling and targeting will grow and amplify social, economic, and political struggles.

"There will be absolutely no privacy, not even in the jungle, away from civilization. I don't like this, but people have shown over and over again that they are willing to trade away their souls for a '$1 off' coupon," Nick Wreden from the University of Technology Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

"Conversation, which includes not only words, but also movement, eye contact, hearing, memory and more, is such a holistic, pleasurable experience that people will not give it up easily."

Theme 3: Information interfaces will advance-especially voice and touch commands. But few expect that brain-to-network connectivity will be typical in most people's daily lives by 2025

"In 2025 we will be able to write on mobiles as fast as we can on a full-screen keyboard, wherever we are. Wearable sensors and mobile eye tracking will be used by systems to learn about users' context: where are they, what are they doing, and what are they likely communicating?" predicts Per Ola Kristensson, lecturer in human-computer interaction at the University of St. Andrews, UK.

"Better sensors, more advanced machine learning algorithms, and a better understanding of humans' capabilities and limitations will result in gesture and speech recognition having evolved so much that users will fluidly be able to express themselves quickly, even if they are mobile or encumbered."

Theme 4: There will be complicated, unintended consequences: 'We will live in a world where many things won't work and nobody will know how to fix them.'

"The Internet of Things is too complex. It will break, over and over," Jerry Michalski, Relationship Economy eXpedition founder said.

"They will also be prone to unintended consequences: they will do things nobody designed for beforehand, most of which will be undesirable. We aren't evolved enough as a species or society to create apps and services that are useful to humanity in the Internet of Things. We'll try to create efficiencies but be thwarted by Nature's complexity."

Theme 5: The unconnected and those who just don't want to be connected may be disenfranchised. Consider the ramifications of digital divides.

"The Internet of Things will add to the comfort of people living in developed countries by 2025. It will also have a measurable impact in utilities markets like energy and water," Miguel Alcaine, International Telecommunication Union area representative for Central America, responded.

"Unfortunately, it might not help people in developing countries with developmental issues, mainly because of the tendency in many developing countries to focus on the short term and not on the long term."

Theme 6: Individuals' and organizations' responses to the Internet of Things will recast the relationships people have with each other and with groups of all kinds.

"Our deep desires to be entertained and connected will lead us to accept these devices. Younger folks will lead the way. Our will to create will make us want these devices ready and on-hand," says Bryan Alexander, senior fellow at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education.

"Naturally, there will be a backlash. We've already seen it with the 'Glassholes' meme. Expect more neoLuddites to hanker for computing as humanity was intended to have it, on keyboards!"

Read the first part of our coverage of the Pew's Internet of Things here. 

For more stories like this, follow us on Twitter!