Back to it´s origins, the Internet ones, the open public communication that today seems or is it´s main purpose, was not in the early objectives.
It was thought mainly for dedicated communications between few under conditions of dissaster for normal ways.
The connection of humans with remote technical devices (mainly military ones) were part of the goals.
Much later, the communication between remotely located computers /nets, with no human interaction, become a "silent" but widlely used tech.
Same as communications between computers and remote sensors, devices, no humans in the middle.
Java was originally designed for that purpose.
So, nothing so new.
You don´t need to imagine fridges chatting each other, but yes, probably, getting from the web climate forecast to adjust tomorrow temp in advance.
