I suggest that many of the machines to which you refer, Mal, are toys purchased out of the market's perception of the need to "keep up with the Joneses".
I realise that your article covers the entire range of modern technology which offers vast benfits to users, and which could be monitored be users for whom the data was not intended, but one aspect of this massive creation of data is the very needlessness of much of it.
I really couldn't care less about using social media to keep track of how many times a person has taken a drink of water, or what they're about to buy in the supermarket.
The sheer volume of minutiae shows that many people are infatuated with the wizardry of a new device, and rush to find ways to make use of it, instead of thinking about what, and why, they wish to communicate to someone else.
I guess it comes down to the premise that if you have something worthwhile to say, say it. If not, don't!

<<Noted futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil predicts that by 2029 computers will be able to understand what we say, hold conversations and learn from their experience.>>

Yes, I also read his depressing book.

Hopefully he is wrong, or hopefully, since the purpose of computer technology is to compensate for the ever-increasing human population, humankind will somehow or another be decimated by then so there will be no need for it.

I for one, don't want to be around in this world if/when this nightmare materialises.

Video on Google's self-driving car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdgQpa1pUUE

And then there's Mercedes' autonomous vehicle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHqB47F12vI

Notice how it takes care to avoid cyclists!

And here's the dark side:

Who killed Michael Hastings?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/michael-hastings-car-hacked_n_3492339.html

I suppose just about everyone has seen the pics re Albert Einstein's predictions by now. How spot-on was that lad. He could fore-see the rise of leftism.
When you sum up between the fun police, the bludging bureaucrats, the cops who mindlessly follow orders unlike Police officers, the pop music followers, the sport-washed like the brainwashed etc etc. you come to realise that the machines aren't to blame at all. The sexually perverted morons in authority are the cause. Fancy a democracy being manipulated by those weirdoes and, to add insult to injury they have no shortage of supporters.

>>I fear the day when technology overlaps our humanity. It will be then that the world will have permanent ensuing generations of idiots.>>

Einstein never uttered most most of the quotes attributed to him. This one is dubious to say the least.

See:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Albert_Einstein

Two things to remember when someone attempts to clinch an argument by quoting some wise old man.

(1) The person quoting usually isn't wise

(2) The wise old man probably never said it in the first place

stevenlmeyer,
Don't be too hasty in dismissing the authenticity of that phrase. I recall reading a book by Professor Gabor called inventing the future, printed 1962 in which makes reference to an age at around the year 2000 when people with low IQ will be operating machines. The computers come to mind.
Why, I am predicting that all the do-gooders will be cowering out of sight when the gravy train slows & being left is out of fashion along with homosexuality & when common sense will once again rule rather than ideaology.