Helping Computers Help Themselves

Jim Posner writes "The IT world's heavy hitters--IBM, Sun, Microsoft, and HP--want computers to solve their own problems.....If you're being chased by a big snarling dog, you don't have to worry about adjusting your heart rate or releasing a precise amount of adrenaline. Your body automatically does it all, thanks to the autonomic nervous system, the master-control for involuntary functions from breathing and blood flow to salivation and digestion." I'd just be happy with a few intelligent daemons to watch my back, like when a program runs amuck and fills up the process list.

Comments

what a bad way

[ramzak2k]

what a bad way to provide a quote from the story

"If you're being chased by a big snarling dog, you don't have to worry about adjusting your heart rate or releasing a precise amount of adrenaline. ...."

I was expecting the article to be on "Super Computers used in medicine" when I read that.

This would have been a better quote:

"...hope is that the constant and costly intervention of database and network administrators trying to figure out what must be done will soon be a thing of the past"

Computer vs. Human

[lpret]

I always am intrigued when someone declares their intent to simulate the human body's abilities on a PC. Since when did this become some sort of Holy Grail? Especially for technology?

There are many ways in which your human body fails. As we've mentioned on slashdot before, it's not really that efficient -- we spend anywhere from 6-10 hours a day (25-40% of the day) recharging and regrouping. If, as a SysAdmin, your network was down for that percentage, would you still have your job? I doubt it...

Also, it fails to protect your body from attacks, we have an endoskeleton, if you look at an ant or any other insect which can take out animals many times it's size, you will notice that they have exoskeletons. It's kind of like having your network security inside the network, leaving some of the network wide open. We all know that exploits will bring down a network that's even partially open.

One more point about our body, it gets sick often, some more than others, and some worse than others. I, for example, have diabetes and I have an insulin pump to inject insulin since my body attacked a part of itself for some reason as of yet unknown. It's something like your OS deleting your TCP/IP capabilities, it leaves you stranded.

Now, I'm sure there are many biology people who will point out that our bodies are amazing feats of detail, etc. etc. That may be true, but I still don't see how that makes it a good blueprint for technology that we create. Remember, it is only with technology that our infant mortality rate is not 40% or whatever ridiculous number it was in the 19th century.