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Initiative for Autonomic Computing Gains Strength

Posted by michael on from the self-diagnostic dept.

museumpeace writes "Tired of fixing your computer? What if your system broke down two billion miles from the nearest spare part or human? NASA has just held a colloquium where Ulster University computer science researcher Roy Sterritt was invited to present his ideas on Autonomic Computing. In the last few years,the leading system vendors have realized 'There is no less than a crisis today in three areas: cost, availability and user experience.' There has been a fair amount of academic research since customers like NASA see in it the potential to make remotely operated complex systems sustainable. It all makes for some very cool systems design work and there are lots of further research opportunities. Just don't forget what it may do to your job."

8 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. A Crisis! The sky is falling! by EatenByAGrue · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yah the leading system vendors have realized there's a crisis. How else are they going to sell more systems if the ones in place now aren't dangerously unstable? They could probably explode at any minute, are toxic, and will probably delete all my data at any second.

    I better go buy a new computer.

  2. Self-fixing computer? by ralphart · · Score: 4, Funny

    If self-fixing computers become the norm, that means half the phone calls I get from friends will stop.

    Hmmm....bug or feature?

    1. Re:Self-fixing computer? by adeydas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Self-fixing computers means some form of Artificial Intelligence, which again means smarter computers in the sense that it can do more logical operations rather than crunch numbers and data only. May be it won't be much of an impact on computers with personal and business uses but in the science arena, it might bring about a revolution. Just imagine producing complex models in bio-chemistry or designing a chip would be so very much easier with a machine to fix stuff whenever the need be.

  3. It doens't matter by Kipsaysso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It won't matter until it can fix user errors anyway.

    --
    This is another way of starting a sig with this and ending it with that.
  4. It's ubiquitously useable knowledge by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's just about impossible that a tecnic that makes robotic spacecraft all that much more self sufficient will be confined to just robotic space travel for long. If NASA is successful, we will see widespread robotization here on Earth as a consequence.
    30 years from now, this will be characterized as a 'mere spin off', and instead of bitching about Moonrocks, ignorant people will be saying "We spent billions to send robot probes to Pluto, and all we got was a bunch of contaminated Helium."

    --
    Who is John Cabal?
  5. they'll just get dumber by Darthmalt · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's a race, Manufactuer's building smarter computers and AOL signing up dumber users.

    So far AOL is winning

  6. Change how you view yourself and your job... by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have been talking about this for years...

    If the autonomous systems NASA and the ESA have put into the void are any indication, I don't think we have much to worry about - the costs will be prohibitive for all save the largest organizations, and true autonomy (in the form of robotics) will have a whole range of other problems (imagine your main file server getting up and walking out of the data center because it mistakenly assumed there was a fire...)

    The key, in the interrum is make yourself indispensible. If you have the mindset that you are a code grinder/monkey and that is all you want to be, then your days are numbered. Your goal should instead be becoming the guy who can put together a complete solution (data, application, hardware, network) in short order that works, scales well, and is extensible by your users. You need to be a jack-of-all-trades. That is how to survive and gain esteem in the eyes of your clients and peers, as I see it.

    --

    Lodragan Draoidh
    The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
  7. The 4 Rs, matey by tootlemonde · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The IBM links says, under "The Solution":

    Autonomic computing: a systemic view of computing modeled after a self-regulating biological system.

    In conventional system design, the Rs of reliable systems are: (1) Robust, (2) Repair, and (3) Redundant.

    • Robust means the system is less likely to fail.
    • Repair means a secondary system looks for signs of failure in the primary system and repairs the problem.
    • Redundant means a secondary system takes over when the primary system fails.

    Biological systems use all three methods to varying degrees but the problem is that biological systems do not survive as individuals, they survive as a species by tolerating a high degree of failure and using a fourth R: Replication.

    For computer systems, this biological systems approach would mean replacing every component of the system on a regular basis the way all the cells in the human body are completely replaced every seven years. Periodically, you would throw out the entire system and replace it with two or three new ones that have undergone a period of testing and development.

    The replication approach, which is key to the survival of biological systems, runs counter to most business thinking, which is to replace multiple systems with fewer, more powerful systems. This limits reliability to the first three Rs.

    There is much that can be done to increase reliability with these 3 Rs but if biological systems are any indication (as well as some theoretical limits), they are inadequate.

    The problem of reliability could ultimately be a flaw in the way business works rather than a technical problem.