Saturday, March 22, 2003

A Pattern Language for Emergent Systems

One of the most influential books in Object Orientated Design is Design Patterns. Design Patterns capture common ways to solve problems using the Object Orientated approach to software. I could see some one writing a similar book for Emergent Systems cataloging broad principals as they appear in many systems. When they do I predict that Quorum Sensing will have an entry

Quorum Sensing - individual units in a distributed decision system changing behavior or state when the number of units in the system reach the required level for successful implementation of a new state or strategy. The term was first coined by microbiologists describing cell to cell communication in bacterial systems. While radically different in implementation Quorum Sensing can be observed in the transformation of grasshoppers into a swarm of locusts.


- Peace

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