  We discuss the need for a confluence of localization, sensing and
communications if RISs are to be deployed in a self-adaptive manner in the
dynamically evolving rich-scattering settings that are typical for 6G
deployment scenarios such as factories. We establish that in such problems the
rich-scattering wireless channels are subject to a highly nonlinear
deterministic double-parametrization through both the RIS and uncontrolled
moving objects. Therefore, acquiring full context-awareness through
localization and sensing is a prerequisite for RIS-empowered communications.
Yet, the byproducts of this daunting communications overhead can feed many
appliances that require context awareness, such that overhead concerns may
vanish. We illustrate the essential steps for operating a self-adaptive RIS
under rich scattering based on a prototypical case study. We discover that
self-adaptive RISs outperform context-ignorant RISs only below a certain noise
threshold that depends, among other factors, on how strongly uncontrolled
perturbers impact the wireless channel. We also discuss ensuing future research
directions that will determine the conditions under which RISs may serve as
technological enabler of 6G networks.
