In a recent piece from ChainLink Research on Remapping the Supply Chain Universe, the author suggests that there are intelligent networks [that] are truly unique, yet little understood. What I’d like to know is, where are these intelligent networks. As far as I’m concerned, an intelligent network is as real as a griffin or a chimera.
The author suggests that they are a trusted source to synchronize the mutual data and processes between trading partners using a shared model based on agreement in policy, process, [and] security. Supposedly they separate the physical supply from the logical supply chain to enable mobility by providing peer-to-peer access and a single version of the truth.
Working backwards, the only system I’ve ever seen give a truly single version of the truth is a spend analysis system after an expert has merged all of the disparate data sources using hand-mapped rules. (Now, there are half-a-dozen companies running single instance Oracle systems that also provide a single version of the truth, but since these white unicorns are rarer than black swans, we might as well pretend they don’t exist.)
Peer-to-peer access has been around for decades, and hit the mass market on the web back in 1999 with Napster. Don’t tell me that was intelligent.
Every system separates the physical supply chain from the logical one. After all, software is an abstraction. And it’s not intelligent. It’s just code.
Marketplaces have been providing a shared model based on agreement in policy, process, and security for over a decade as well. It’s framework, not intelligence.
Finally, there’s no connection, or even correlation, between a “trusted source” and intelligence.
Plus, if you look at today’s “social networks”, there’s a good chance that you’ll wonder if there’s even any intelligence in the user base!
The reality is that “intelligent” networks don’t exist because “intelligent” systems don’t exist because there’s no such thing as “artificial intelligence”. Take it from a CS PhD who knows. If someone is trying to sell you an “intelligent network”, they are bs-ing you. Don’t fall for it.