Computers that run themselves

YOU want to dash for a bus on the other side of the street. But imagine that, instead of your brain automatically giving you a dose of adrenaline, speeding up your breathing and calculating all the right movements autonomously, you had to perform each of these functions as separate acts of conscious deliberation. The chances are you would stumble before even stepping off the kerb. In many ways, such is the state of information technology today--at least in IBM's view. Computer systems and their "organs"--eg, microprocessors, applications and networks--are becoming ever more powerful. But they are also becoming ever more complex, and so have to be managed by a fast-growing army of information technology (IT) worker bees.