millions of smart cards were used around the world in Information Technology. This forms the opening salvo in the extension of computer networks to fully accommodate human social systems. This, we suggest, is the path out of the primeval swamps of current chip centered incarnations of personal devices.

In this chapter, we have examined some of the basic mechanisms on which the evolutionary progression of living things, and computers, is based. Quite obviously, of course, mechanisms often coalesce into systems. Systems in turn impact, and are impacted by, the environments in which they function. Such environments essentially form context for the systems. We are on the path to understanding that context sensitive, metaphorical comprehension is the basis of the human mind from which social systems have emerged. So, we now need to delve into these environmental considerations; the topic of our next chapter.

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