Developing Singapore into a Smart Nation

There is this article by a Jenson Goh in the Today paper on this topic and titled ‘Developing the “heartware” for a Smart Nation. What does this mean, a nation of smart people or what? According to Yaacob Inbrahim, a Smart Nation starts with the hardware, ie tapping on the potential of infocomm and media. This is definitely not the Smart Nation I was thinking of, a nation of smart people, but more an attempt to tap on the advantages of technology and communication. 

Yaacob went on to elaborate on the use of big data to understand human behavior and the interconnectivity of all kinds of modern devices to give instant information. While writing this, the thought of traffic lights for human beans in MRT stations came to mind. We need devices like traffic lights to inform the people whether the station is crowded or not and how to make decisions like taking alternative transport if it is crowded. This is what a Smart Nation is supposed to be in its basic form. Never mind if the people may become more stupid and dependent on machines and devices to tell them what to do. Won’t it be nice if the people will react to light signals, green they start walking, red, they stop? 

Yaacob and his ministry have been thinking, and I think the govt too, and they have come to the conclusion that ‘All problems of a city can be traced to a single factor: Rapid growth, which places massive strain on its support infrastructure. (So) The development of a Smart Nation platform can go a long way in overcoming this challenge.’ Thank God they finally discovered the causes of the problems in this city. And they are going to take actions, to turn this city into a Smart Nation or city, so that all the problems would be solved. I remember the story of putting the cart before the donkey, or was it closing the barn door after the pony has bolted out? Never mind. 

There is also the element of the people, the heartware. Now which should come first, smart people first before Smart Nation or Smart Nation then smart people? Let mean put it the other way, smart people make Smart Nation or Smart Nation makes smart people? Or it could be Smart Nation makes robotic people. I think it is easy to have Smart Nation first as the hardware can be bought. Having a nation of smart people is a bit more difficult, and to make matter worse, it is not easy to turn a nation of daft into smart people. It is a daunting task, must be. If it is difficult, then perhaps there is also an easy solution to it. Replace the daft with smart people from the world. We can just bring in the best to replace the daft should be easy. We have started in many areas, sports talents, IT talents, finance talents, academics, medical and legal professions etc etc.