In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano described the optimal state-of-the-world as a smart planet that is instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.
"What this means," Palmisano told the U.S.-based think tank and publisher of Foreign Affairs magazine in his November 6 address, "is that the digital and physical infrastructures of the world are converging. Computational power is being put into things we wouldn’t recognize as computers."
Moreover, Palmisano said, societies, governments, companies, industries and healthcare systems increasingly must embrace interconnected and "smart" operations, especially in view of the crises that confront humanity at the beginning of the twenty-first century: a worldwide credit crunch, climate change, water shortages, poverty and war.
"There is much serious work ahead of us, as leaders and as citizens," he said. "Together, we have to consciously infuse intelligence into our decision-making and management systems, not just infuse our processes with more speed and capacity . . . We are moving into the age of the globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet. The question is, what will we do with that?"
Read Sam Palmisano's speech in its entirety.
Last updated on November 6, 2008