Self-Star Properties

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[[Image:SelfStarProperties.png|thumb|400px|The basic Self-* Properties and the four sections of Autonomic Computing]]
[[Image:SelfStarProperties.png|thumb|400px|The basic Self-* Properties and the four sections of Autonomic Computing]]
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'''Self-Configuration''' is the automated configuration of components and systems. Autonomic systems will configure themselves automatically in accordance with high-level policies that specify what is desired, not how it is to be accomplished. '''Self-Optimization''' means systems, sub-systems and components continually seek opportunities to improve their own performance and efficiency. It requires the autonomous ability of identifying and seizing opportunities to make the system more efficient in performance or cost. '''Self-Healing''' or '''Self-Repairing''' is the ability of a system to automatically detect, diagnose, and repair localized software and hardware problems.  
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'''Self-Configuration''' is the automated configuration of components and systems. Autonomic systems will configure themselves automatically in accordance with high-level policies that specify what is desired, not how it is to be accomplished. '''[[Self-Optimization]]''' means systems, sub-systems and components continually seek opportunities to improve their own performance and efficiency. It requires the autonomous ability of identifying and seizing opportunities to make the system more efficient in performance or cost. '''[[Self-Cleaning]]''', '''[[Self-Healing]]''' or '''[[Self-Repairing]]''' is the ability of a system to automatically detect, diagnose, and repair localized software and hardware problems. Self-Healing requires monitoring, detection and diagnosis of faults and errors: an old Latin proverb says "Bene diagnoscitur, bene curatur" (Something that is well diagnosed can be cured well).  
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Self-Healing requires monitoring, detection and diagnosis of faults and errors: an old Latin proverb
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says "Bene diagnoscitur, bene curatur" (Something that is well diagnosed can be cured well).
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'''Self-Stabilization''' refers to a system's ability to recover automatically from unexpected faults. '''Self-Protection''' is finally a property of systems which automatically defend themselves against malicious attacks or cascading failures. It uses early warning to anticipate and prevent systemwide failures. Other useful self-properties are related to analysis and diagnosis: '''Self-Describing''' and '''Self-Explaining''' systems are useful if we want to understand distributed systems which are getting more and more complex. They are also necessary for intelligent autonomous systems with the abilities of self-healing. Less intelligent systems must rely on restart of affected components, which is the foundation of the [[Recovery-Oriented Computing]] (ROC). All these properties are desirable, because the deploying, operating and maintaining of complex systems can be very costly, difficult and expensive. Modern [[Distributed System|distributed systems]] are inherently complex.  
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'''Self-Stabilization''' refers to a system's ability to recover automatically from unexpected faults. '''[[Self-Protection]]''' is finally a property of systems which automatically defend themselves against malicious attacks or cascading failures. It uses early warning to anticipate and prevent systemwide failures. Other useful self-properties are related to analysis and diagnosis: '''Self-Describing''' and '''Self-Explaining''' systems are useful if we want to understand distributed systems which are getting more and more complex. They are also necessary for intelligent autonomous systems with the abilities of self-healing. Less intelligent systems must rely on restart of affected components, which is the foundation of the [[Recovery-Oriented Computing]] (ROC). All these properties are desirable, because the deploying, operating and maintaining of complex systems can be very costly, difficult and expensive. Modern [[Distributed System|distributed systems]] are inherently complex.
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'''Self-Design''' can be found in (unsupervised) [[Learning|learning]] and [[Adaptation|adaptation]].
As the prefix self-* suggests, such self-* properties occur indeed often in self-organizing systems.  
As the prefix self-* suggests, such self-* properties occur indeed often in self-organizing systems.  
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The usually involve some form of '''Self-Reference'''. Yet the existing self-* properties of living systems are not exactly identical with the desirable self-* properties of artificial systems. Living systems are characterized by the following self-* properties or self-organizing processes. What all living systems have in common is [[Autopoiesis]] and [[Self-Organization]]. '''Self-Regeneration''' and '''Self-Reproduction''' can be found even in plants through metabolism and sex (in Greek, 'metabolos' means something fluctuating or changing, that is always changing or in perpetual change)
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The usually involve some form of '''Self-Reference'''. Yet the existing self-* properties of living systems are not exactly identical with the desirable self-* properties of artificial systems. Living systems are characterized by the following self-* properties or self-organizing processes. What all living systems have in common is [[Autopoiesis]] and [[Self-Organization]]. '''[[Self-Regeneration]]''' and '''Self-Reproduction''' can be found even in plants through metabolism and sex (in Greek, 'metabolos' means something fluctuating or changing, that is always changing or in perpetual change)
, '''Self-Movement''', '''Self-Control''' and '''Self-Defense''' in animals due to digestion, cognition, and the immune system, and finally '''Self-Awareness''' and '''Self-Consciousness''' in humans. In other words the application of the principles found in natural systems to artificial and distributed systems is, unfortunately, not an easy, straightforward process. We cannot simply obtain amazing self-* properties in artificial systems just by imitating nature. A self-reproductive application is known as a dangerous virus, a self-defending system can be a nightmare, and a self-regenerative application can perhaps prevent a deactivation.  
, '''Self-Movement''', '''Self-Control''' and '''Self-Defense''' in animals due to digestion, cognition, and the immune system, and finally '''Self-Awareness''' and '''Self-Consciousness''' in humans. In other words the application of the principles found in natural systems to artificial and distributed systems is, unfortunately, not an easy, straightforward process. We cannot simply obtain amazing self-* properties in artificial systems just by imitating nature. A self-reproductive application is known as a dangerous virus, a self-defending system can be a nightmare, and a self-regenerative application can perhaps prevent a deactivation.  
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=== Protection, Pain and Allergies ===
=== Protection, Pain and Allergies ===
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Pain is an unpleasant sensation resulting from the intricate interplay between
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[[Self-Protection|Self-protection]] can have very severe consequences
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sensory and cognitive mechanisms. It is associated with actual or
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and side-effects if the integrity of the self is affected: if the self
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potential tissue damage in natural organisms. Although it is unpleasant,
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is not recognized correctly, allergies and autoimmune diseases occur.
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it is a necessary mechanism of systems with the capability of effective selfprotection.
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The system attacks itself if the self cannot be distinguished
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Effective self-protection means fast self-protection. The rapid
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correctly from the non-self.
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warning through pain is a critical component of the body’s defense system.
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Pain is also a consequence of self-protection, it seems to be  
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Pain is an unpleasant sensation resulting from the intricate interplay between
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a general, necessary mechanism of systems with the capability
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sensory and cognitive mechanisms. A painful stimulus leads to a massive
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of self-protection, because it signals the place where the  
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activation of multiple units, and prevents at the same time any actions
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self-protecting mechanisms fail or where they are badly needed.
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associated with it. It is characterized by a loss in the flow of information, or
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in the members of the system.
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* A trainer of a sports team feels pain if his players are banned from the field, and he cannot send in new players.
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* A general feel pain if his army loses in a continued campaign lots of soldiers, and he cannot replace them with new ones.
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* A bishop feel pain if his church loses lots of members, while the number of new members is sinking, too. A chief of a political party will do the same
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Pain seems to be a general, necessary mechanism of systems with the
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capability of self-protection, because it signals the place where the selfprotecting
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mechanisms fail.
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Another negative side-effect of self-protection are autoimmune diseases
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and allergies. In autoimmune diseases the body attacks the ‘self’ and its
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own cells, examples are Diabetes Mellitus (type 1) or Multiple Sclerosis. In
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allergies, the body attacks harmless targets which are normal parts of the
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body: allergens such as dust, pollen, or certain foods. In both cases, the body
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attacks parts of itself which are harmless. The distinction between self/nonself
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and harmless/harmful goes wrong. In autoimmune diseases, parts of the
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self are mistaken for hostile agents, and in allergies, harmless targets are
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mistaken for harmful intruders.
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Most autoimmune diseases are probably the result of multiple circumstances,
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for example, a genetic predisposition triggered by an infection. Autoimmune
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diseases result from at least three different interacting components:
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genetic, environmental and regulatory. A unifying concept for the explanation
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of an autoimmune disease needs “to incorporate genetic predisposition,
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environmental factors and immune dysregulation”, as Ermann and Fathman
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argue.
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=== Rejuvenation and Cancer ===
=== Rejuvenation and Cancer ===
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Self-renewal is the key property of stem cells. Although they belong to the
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[[Self-Rejuvenation|Self-rejuvenation]] and [[Self-Regeneration|self-regeneration]] can have very severe consequences, because they affect the integrity and structure of the system itself. If a [[Complex_Adaptive_System|complex adaptive system]] has a built-in [[Self-Rejuvenation|self-rejuvenation]] ability, and it grants it’s agents the rights to create and to found new elements, these elements can severely damage or threaten the function of the whole system. Any system which is able to remould and reinvent itself can replace itself by something else. It seems as if [[Rejuvenation and Cancer|rejuvenation and cancer]] are closely related to each other.
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most beneficial cells and enable rejuvenation and regeneration of the body,
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they also seem to be at the heart of every tumor, as new reserch has found
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out. Is it possible that the same cells which are responsible for
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maintaining a tissue or an organ are also responsible for destroying it
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through the worst form of disease?
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A link between self-renewal, self-rejuvenation and self-reproduction would
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perhaps explain why cancer is most common in the organs responsible for
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self-reproduction: breast cancer or endometrial cancer in women, and prostate
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cancer in men. It would also explain why “many of the body’s tissues that
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are most prone to cancer, like the blood, skin and lining of the gut”
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are self-regenerating tissues. These self-regenerating tissues are composed of
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short-lived cells, and contain a self-renewing population of stem cells that
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maintain them.
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Cancer is a very complex disease. It can take years and decades until
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enough mutations and damages are accumulated to enable a tumor. One
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problem is that every tumor looks different.
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Future research will hopefully shed more light on this complicated topic.
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Recent research has found a close relationship between stem cells and tumor
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generating cancer cells. Tumors seem to be the price for high
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age. The reason is not only accumulated damage in form of progressive
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deterioration, gradual abraison and inevitable wear and tear damages. Old
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age is only possible through rejuvenation and repair. It looks like steems
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cells which are responsible for renewal, rejuvenation and regeneration have
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not only the ability to regenerate a system, but also the possibility to destroy
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a system.
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The more specialized an organism or a cell is, the more it seems to loose
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its ability to replicate and regenerate itself. Stem cells are primal undifferentiated
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cells that retain the ability to produce an identical copy of themselves,
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whereas ordinary cells, specialized for a certain purpose, loose the ability to
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produce an identical copy of themselves. Intermediary cells are restricted by
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an internal counting mechanism to a finite number of cell divisions, which
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declines with increasing differentiation.
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Has this something to do with the unique history of each organism or
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cell (are old, highly differentiated and specialized cells usually polluted or
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used up) ? Or is this hierarchy useful for avoiding chaos and confusing which
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could arise if every cell would be allowed to replicate itself?
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If no cells would be able to copy and replicate itself, then the body would
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not be able to rejuvenate and repair itself in order to replace damaged or old
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cells. If all cells would be able to do this, this would result in ”chaos” and
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every cell would be a potential cancer cell. It looks like Nature has invented
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a compromise in form of stem cells.
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Stem cells are a blessing, because they can replace damaged or old cells,
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but mutated or damaged stem cells are a curse. Stem cells have like tumor
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generating cancer cells the same potential to proliferate, they have an
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unlimited life span and the ability to generate a diverse range of other cell
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types.
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New research gives strong evidence that cancer is the price for an
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evovable system (subject to mutation) with the ability of self-replication, selfrejuvenation
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and self-repair. It seems to be the price for the self-* properties
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which enable our existence and keep us alive. Perhaps this helps to explain
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why it is so difficult to find a cure for it. Recently, researchers have suggest
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again new strategies to fight cancer, for instance viruses (modified common
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cold viruses), chillies (spicy food) or sugars (a combination of sugar and
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short-chain fatty acid). So far, there is no miracle cure for cancer. And
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probably none of these new approaches will be a miracle cure, either. But
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hopefully one approach in the future - perhaps due to the new insight that
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the disease is related to self-rejuvenation - will lead to something useful in
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the ongoing battle against this terrible disease.
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This rises the urgent question if artificial systems can develop some form
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of cancer, too, if we try to build systems with these very desirable self-*
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properties. Is there a form of cancer in complex adaptive systems in general,
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not only in biological organisms, but also in ecological, economical, social or
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political systems ? This would perhaps be an element arising from the need
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for self-rejuvenation which proliferates, spreads and replicates itself until it
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has destroyed the whole system.
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* Ecologies systems allow the self-rejuvenation by “granting the right” to create new species and to explore new ways to survive. In an ecological system, this freedom can lead to mass extinctions or epedimics caused by parasites or viruses with the capacity to damage or destroy the whole ecological system.
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* Economies allow the self-rejuvenation by granting the right to found new companies and to explore new market forms. In an economical system, this freedom can lead to market monopolies, which destroy the market system. Democracies allow the self-rejuvenation by granting the rights to found new parties, to assemble, to demonstrate, and to educate. In a political system, this can lead to terrorism or an ideology like fascism. In a religious system, it can lead to schisms and sects.
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* Science allows the self-rejuvenation by “granting the right” to create new theories and to explore new ways to explain nature. This freedom can lead to subsystems with the capacity to threaten the whole scientific system, for example in form of a paradigm shift.
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In general, if a [[Complex_Adaptive_System|complex adpative system]] has a built-in self-rejuvenation ability, and it grants it’s agents the rights to create and to found new elements, these elements can severely damage or threaten the function of the whole system. Any system which is able to remould and reinvent itself can replace itself by something else.
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=== Conclusion ===
=== Conclusion ===
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* self-optimizing -> slow-down, halt, stop
* self-optimizing -> slow-down, halt, stop
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Any strong self-* property could also lead to rejection or overwriting of
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Any automatic or strong self-* property without a conscious controller
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manual changes, or to the inability to deactive the system - to the loss of
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in the loop has the advantage that it can react fast and immediately.
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But it could also lead to rejection or overwriting of manual changes,  
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or to the inability to deactivate the self-* mechanism - to the loss of
control. The fear that we will lose control of our software, if it is modified to
control. The fear that we will lose control of our software, if it is modified to
be more like living systems is justified.
be more like living systems is justified.

Latest revision as of 07:59, 3 January 2009

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