What is Smart?

An etymology study on the word smart would generate a plethora of different meanings. The meaning of “quick, active, clever” is attested from 1300, which later had the notion of “cutting” wit, words, or else “keen in bargaining.” The meaning later turned to “trim in attire”, which was first attested 1718. Cambridge dictionary defines it as an adjective “ A smart machine, weapon, etc. uses computers to make it work so that it is able to act in an independent way”

Correct to its basic definition, smartness in the modern sense would entail much more than the common notion of it. In watches, TVs and homes, smart means “connected to the Internet” or “connected to your phone.” In phones, it means “has a touchscreen and runs apps.” So we could rather call them app phones.

There is a primary distinction in any product, city or a system being smart and it being automated. An automated response can be triggered onto almost everything, but generates lesser meaning as it eventually requires human intervention. Smartness would be governed by many factors like infrastructure, technology, intelligence and control; all intertwined among each other. Anything smart would need sensors to gather data, storage space to keep the data, technology to act or compute on the data, intelligence to take decisions and the amount of control it is allowed. A network which synchronizes and eases communication is essential. Effort and error are be reduced by integration as well as optimization. There is also a distinction among the perceived and actual control that is available to any smart object.

We can only wait for the world to turn smart, until which the evolved monkeys would remain smarter in comparision.