IBM’s newest advertising language really annoys me: “Building a Smarter Planet”; and from their website: “See how the planet’s getting smarter.”

Our “planet” is plenty smart, thank you very much. Gaia has an amazing and effective regulating system that has done a fine job adjusting for human actions that continually foul up the works–well, that is until recently.

And even if Gaia cannot continue her regulation in a manner that allows this present system of life to continue, she will regulate for another system that will naturally follow. She has done it before; she can do it again.

Okay, okay, I understand that advertising is all about taking license with language and molding it–often cleverly–to make a product stand out. As a wordsmith, I frequently admire, chuckle, and rail against their efforts. This is a rail.

Planet is not a synonym for human. Our planet includes humans–one of the over 1.5 million known species of animals, plants, and algae. Not accepting that has gotten us into the environmental muck that currently surrounds us. Advertising’s word geniuses could help move us away from that Manifest Destiny mindset and toward a partnership with the other organics and inorganics that also populate this planet.

A word, a simple word, can change our perception of the world. A healthy dose of humilitas, an acceptance of a lesser place in our planet’s overall system, could create a future in which we all flourish. As it is, continuing the perception of our planet as human will only continue to manifest a destiny of loss for the whole system–including humans.