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Autonomic Computing

pvcpie writes: "The New York Times has a story today about Autonomic Computing, which is described as "a biological metaphor suggesting a systemic approach to attaining a higher level of automation in computing;" and they published a paper (pdf) on the topic. Apparently there are already some universities signed up on Autonomic Computing projects, more info was available on the website and in the nyt article. It also appeared in CNET."

7 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds familiar... by billybob2001 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Consider the autonomic nervous system: It tells your heart how many times to beat, checks your blood's sugar and oxygen levels. It monitors your temperature and adjusts your blood flow and skin functions to keep it at 98.6 degrees. But most significantly, it does all this without any conscious recognition or effort.

    Can you say "SysAd"?

  2. Microsoft's "self-healing" server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It reboots itself.

  3. This reminds me... by AshPattern · · Score: 2, Funny

    Of when Crab and Tortise were involved in a phonograph player duel, where Crab was on a quest to find a phonograph upon which any sounds could be played, and Tortise kept making "This cannot be played on Phonograph X" records.

  4. as a contract programmer by ReidMaynard · · Score: 2, Funny

    this says one thing to me

    ka-ching!![$$]

    lots of overtime

    --
    -- www.globaltics.net

    Political discussion for a new world

  5. Yeah, but.... by BMazurek · · Score: 4, Funny
    Apparently there are already some universities signed up on Autonomic Computing projects

    Yeah...but does the University know about it? :-)

  6. Cool Stuff... by ldopa1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is some very cool stuff. Of course, I am reminded of a joke related to this:

    Joe, the world's leading Cyberneticist boards a plane bound for Athens, Greece. This flight is the maiden flight of American Airline's first totally automated flight.

    As he walks to his seat, he is greeted by a slick looking robotic flight attendant of his design. After sitting down, another attendant of the same design brings him a scotch and water (just the way he likes it) and says in a tinny voice "Good Morning Dr. Davidson, I hope you enjoy the flight."

    Settling back in his seat with his drink in hand, he thinks about the many thousands of hours he has put into the autonomic systems that entirely control this plane.

    As he goes to give his empty glass back to the robotic attendant, the plane pushes back from the gate. After a short while, he hears a much smoother robotic voice come over the intercom; "Good Morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to American Airlines Flight 1644 from Los Angeles to Boston. This will be a 2 1/2 hour flight. We at American Arlines would like to take a moment and point out that this is the first trip made completely under the control of the latest IBM 36000 Autonomic Robotic Piloting Computer. Every aspect of this flight, from the attendants serving you drinks to myself, the pilot, have been developed with safety in mind."

    As the flight trundles down the runway, picking up speed, the voice continues on; "So you can sit back, relax and enjoy the flight, secure in the knowledge that absolutely nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong......"

    Seriously, we're not very far from this. Flights routinely take off and land with only the most minor human intervention, and cars are being developed which use visual cues to pilot themselves down the road (a company in Australia has converted a Humvee for a test bed).

    --
    The Dopester
    "Yes, I'm a Karma Whore, but I'm doing it to pay my way through school."
  7. So What by hidden+vampyre · · Score: 2, Funny

    Gene Roddenbery (spelling?) came up with fully integrated autonomic computing with hardware (ie., the Enterprise) ages ago, best expressed for the first time in The Next Generation. Plainspeak computing, graphical/physical interfaces, monitoring systems paramters, generating data and executing instructions at voice-command, the whole scha-bang, all on the bridge of the Enterprise. Of course this is where computing is going. The fine writers at IBM should watch more TV. I am not sure that this is where computing SHOULD go as the paper contends; it puts that much more power in the hands of people wishing to commandeer a business or endeavour by way of its computer control. Doubtless security measures will improve but there is ALWAYS a way to adapt to an obstacle; we see this in nature as we do in computing. Overcoming obstacles is why computers exist in the first place.

    wakka smakka