RE: Can Computers Run a Business?

“There’s an interesting article in USA Today about on-demand air service using microjets. People will be able to go on-line and order a three or four-seat jet to pick them at the airport and fly them to important sales functions (or wherever it is business people go) for three or four dollars per mile. But what’s interesting to a non-suit like me is the computer system required to run such a service. It has to be able to receive departure and arrival requests, quote ticket prices, check availability of microjets, factor in weather patterns, ect., and then come up with the most effient schedule possible.

The computational problem is apparently pretty formidable, and the system isn’t finished accepting and crunching data until shortly before the first departures of the day. A company named Citrix Systems has developed the software to crack these kinds of complex “optimization problems”.AFAIK, never before have so many of the day-to-day functions of a large and complex business operation been handled and scheduled by a computer system. A company named DayJet plans to operate such a system between 20 cities in SE USA by the end of next year.“ - Zaster

It is quite evident that there is a lot more to running that business than the ‘traveling plane problem’ — yet, we do find ourselves in increasingly complex situations…like complex transit routing systems, similar to the situation you point out. It is very unlikely that even a large, very diligent, set of people could continually make the mission-critical decisions needed to keep a city’s traffic systems flowing.

Running a business does require different skill sets…but can a computer run a business? Let’s see what my mind simulation of Turing says:

“In so far as any officer or agent of a company can.“

So there you have it. Only a matter of time

I think there may be interesting parallels drawn in the near future between processor design and legal agreements — the total scope not being understood by any one person, we will increasingly rely on the human-friendly views provided by our smart tools.

I suspect once the legal matters of a venture can be configured and instantiated automagically via ’smart agents’…we will really begin to realize the coming epoch of computer controlled business.

As a side note, on the other side of many of Target’s employees’ headsets speaks a store routing agent with a text-to-speech interface, which will notify who to do what and when –

“Excuse me, there was a reported product spill in isle 4, please investigate, report back affected RFIDs with wand and await instructions. Thank you John.”

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