Multicellular life exploits four architectural strategies that are also emerging
in multicellular computing. These strategies are rare in single cell organisms yet
are universal in multicellular organisms. They evolved together and
work seamlessly together.
| Multicellular Organisms | Implications for Computing |
| Specialization supersedes general behavior | |
| Biofilms, are cooperative groups of single-cell organisms that specialize temporarily according to "quorum" cues from neighbors. In contrast, cells in true multicellular organisms specialize (differentiate) permanently during development of the organism. | Many computers, especially PCs, retain a large repertoire of unused general behavior susceptible to malware attack. Specialization is common, however, in embedded machines, cell phones, PDAs, etc. Biology suggests that specialization in computing will become increasingly common |
| Communication relies on messages | |
| Cells in multicellular organisms communicate with each other via messenger molecules, never via DNA. The "meaning" of cell-to-cell messages is determined by the receiving cell, not the sender | Executable
code is the analog of DNA. many computers, permit download of executable
code (e.g, Active-X, java, or even .exe).
Biology suggests this should be taboo. The meaning of messages must be
determined by the receiver. |
| An organisms identity, or "self" is defined by a stigmergy structure | Metazoans and biofilms build extracellular stigmergy
structures (connective tissue, bone, shell, or just a jelly-like
matrix) which define the persistent self "Selfness" resides as much in the extracellular stigmergy structure as in the cells. |
Intranets
and databases are typical stigmergy structures in multicellular computing, as are many
Web phenomena such as search engines, folksonomy sites, wikis and blogs.
Determination of "self" is largely ad
hoc in today's systems. It needs to be more systematic. |
| "Self" is protected by programmed cell death (PCD) or apoptosis |
All healthy Metazoan cells are prepared to commit suicide - a process called
apoptosis. Apoptosis reflects a multicellular perspective,
sacrificing the individual cell for the good of the multicellular organism.
Apoptosis evolved to deal with DNA replication errors, viral infection,
and rogue undifferentiated cells. Yet the organism also uses it to
sculpt its shape as it develops.
|
Examples of apoptosis
in computing include shutting off errant CPUs in fault-tolerant
systems, and the Blue Screen of Death in Windows -- a programmed, if annoying, response to an
unrecoverable error. A civilized computer in a multicellular computing world should sense its own rogue behavior, e.g., a viral or worm infection, and disconnect itself from the network. |
Last revised 8/5/2018