U.S. on the Edge of Telerevolution

The French call it telematique. We call it telecomputing or telematics. Whatever you call it, the marriage of computers and communications is changing the way we work, the way we live and the way we compete with others around the world.

Throughout history, competitive advantage among cities and states has been shaped by technology and infrastructure. As MIT Historian Warner Schilling has pointed out, the glory of Athens rested on silver mines; the might of Sparta on a process for making steel; the Romans ruled through roads; and the Assyrians overran Babylon and Egypt with the chariot. Europe's colonization of much of the world depended on clocks, the compass, gunpowder and improvements in the design of sailing ships.

Today, it's telecomputing.

Militarily, telecomputing technologies permit modern naval fleets, "smart" bombs and command and control systems