On Transforming Systems – a Smarter World

Having explained X~N.g in an earlier post, you might want to know... what was it about the discussion about “Smarter Planet” and IBM, that got me over the ~ (here it means hump!)

So here is a quote from that text....
IBM's recent campaign goes well beyond mere image — and beyond green — to envision a "smarter" world in which problems as wide-ranging as health care costs, energy and resource shortages, government inefficiency, threatened waterways, climate change, and traffic congestion can be addressed by a blend of systems thinking, technological innovation, and computing power. It's an intriguing campaign aimed at helping redefine IBM from its roots as a computer maker to its more recent incarnation as a self-described "global services company."
Notice the "Systems thinking"... now that I thought was interesting.... but then there was more...

"Globalization has many benefits, but also some tradeoffs because many of the systems that the world operates in today  — and by systems, we mean systems in every sense of the word, from systems in companies, to manmade systems and natural systems — needed to become smarter, to handle and take advantage of the greater connectedness in the world.
and finally....
I asked Kennedy and Lechner how the ads work — that is, how they are supposed to create new business opportunities for IBM. Kennedy explained:
"There are two ways. First of all, in practical terms, over time we will talk about how 'smarter' is a way to think about transformation, and a way that industries can be transformed, and the way that companies in those industries can be transformed. So there are opportunities for banks to become smarter, retail firms to become smarter, healthcare to become smarter, government to become smarter. What you've seen initially are about larger issues because they resonate well. They are ones that the general population are familiar with.
"The reason why this is so timely, we believe, from a business standpoint, is we're in a time of great change in the world and we're in a time in our history where change is being discussed everywhere from the kitchen table all the way to the boardroom table. As a result, the leaders of many of our clients and leaders around the world are focused on transformation and see this as an opportunity to drive a great amount of transformation, and therefore it's a great opportunity to address ways that they can make their companies become more competitive as we come through this time of great change. That's the way we see the commercial opportunity."

See the repeated references to transformation.... now that did it for me... an acknowledgement that what technology actually does.... is transform... it is just one of the levers that is at our disposal... an important one for that matter... though if one were to look at the way we deal with it.... we almost think of it as the only one....
That is why I found the acknowledgement of the systems perspective interesting... .so we were also saying that these were 'Systems' that were dealing with... .and we know that changing them means dealing with them from multiple perspectives... and that they would be complex... and therefore our intervention may not necessarily have linear effect....
Wow... am I reading too much... or are we really Smart