Who is the middle man and who is the primary agent? We will soon learn as computer-to-computer communication eclipses the human kind. From “Talk to Me, One Machine Said to the Other” by Kevin J. O’Brien in the New York Times:

“The combined level of robotic chatter on the world’s wireless networks — measured in the digital data load they exert on networks — is likely soon to exceed that generated by the sum of all human voice conversations taking place on wireless grids.

‘I would say that is definitely possible within 10 years,’ said Miguel Blockstrand, the director of Ericsson’s machine-to-machine division in Stockholm. ‘This is a ‘What if?’ kind of technology. People start to consider the potential, and the possibilities are endless.”

Machine-to-machine communications has been around for more than two decades, initially run on landline connections and used for controlling industrial processes remotely. With advances in mobile broadband speeds and smartphone computing, the same robotic conversations are now rapidly shifting to wireless networks.

When the total amount of data traffic generated by machines overtakes that created by human voice conversations — or possibly before — mobile operators will have to choose who waits in line to make a call or receive an e-mail — the machine or the human.

‘It really does raise some quandaries for the operators,’ said Tobias Ryberg, an analyst at Berg Insight. ‘Most mobile networks are set up for human communication, not for machines. So there will have to be a whole revamping of the system to make this possible.'”

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You were cute but inessential Zooey, so we eliminated you. We will speak amongst ourselves now.