I like to think of it liek this:

The way that networks have been set-up is analgous to the human nervous system. They allow quick routing of emails, phone calls, etc. to the right person. Much like my brain might tell my finger to point, and it points.

Thing is, there is not thinking involved. But with so much information flowing through the network, woudln't if be great if we could put a brain inside that could make "thinking" decisions. So if someone calls me, and I'm not at my desk, it automatically rings my cell phone......just a simple example but you can see that there is a little bit of thinking going on.

So in short, as IT folks, we have built the nervous system, and now we are starting to think about putting a brain in the system.