The Vital Network: An Algorithmic Milieu of Communication and Control

The biological turn in computing has influenced the development of algorithmic control and what I call the vital network: a dynamic, relational, and generative assemblage that is self-organizing in response to the heterogeneity of contemporary network processes, connections, and communication. I discuss this biological turn in computation and control for communication alongside historically significant developments in cybernetics that set out the foundation for the development of self-regulating computer systems. Control is shifting away from models that historically relied on the human-animal model of cognition to govern communication and control, as in early cybernetics and computer science, to a decentred, nonhuman model of control by algorithm for communication and networks. To illustrate the rise of contemporary algorithmic control, I outline a particular example, that of the biologically-inspired routing algorithm known as a ‘quorum sensing’ algorithm. The increasing expansion of algorithms as a sense-making apparatus is important in the context of social media, but also in the subsystems that coordinate networked flows of information. In that domain, algorithms are not inferring categories of identity, sociality, and practice associated with Internet consumers, rather, these algorithms are designed to act on information flows as they are transmitted along the network. The development of autonomous control realized through the power of the algorithm to monitor, sort, organize, determine, and transmit communication is the form of control emerging as a postscript to Gilles Deleuze’s ‘postscript on societies of control.

Inspiration From Games and Entertainment Artifacts: A Rising Paradigm for Designing Mechanisms and Algorithms in Robotics

Games and toys have been serving as entertainment tools to humans for a long period of time. While except for entertainment, they can also trigger inspiration and enhance productivity in many other domains such as healthcare and general workplaces. The concept of the game is referred to a series of structured procedures (e.g., card games) and virtual programs. The entertainment artifacts could be a toy or even a handicraft, such as origami and kirigami, for entertainment purposes in a broader sense. Recently, the design of robots and relevant applications in robotics has been emerging in taking inspiration from Games and Entertainment Artifacts (GEA). However, there is a lack of systematic and general process for implementing a GEA-inspired design for developing robot-related applications. In this article, we put forward a design paradigm based on the inspiration of game and entertainment artifacts which is a systematic design approach. The design paradigm could follow two different processes which are driven by problems and solutions, respectively, using analogies of games and entertainment artifacts to build robotic solutions for solving real problems. The problem-driven process starts with an existing real-world problem, which follows the sequences of robotics problem search, robotics problem identification, GEA solution search, GEA solution identification, GEA principle extraction, and the principle implementation. Reversely, the solution-driven process follows the sequence of GEA solution search, GEA solution identification, GEA principle extraction, robotics problem search, robotics problem identification, and principle implementation. We demonstrate the application of the design paradigm using the case study of a new type of reconfigurable floor cleaning robot and its path planning algorithm

Security and Privacy in Molecular Communication and Networking: Opportunities and Challenges

International audienceMolecular Communication (MC) is an emerging andpromising communication paradigm for several multi-disciplinarydomains like bio-medical, industry and military. Differently to thetraditional communication paradigm, the information is encodedon the molecules, that are then used as carriers of information.Novel approaches related to this new communication paradigmhave been proposed, mainly focusing on architectural aspects andcategorization of potential applications. So far, security and privacyaspects related to the molecular communication systems havenot been investigated at all and represent an open question thatneed to be addressed. The main motivation of this paper lies onproviding some first insights about security and privacy aspects ofMC systems, by highlighting the open issues and challenges andabove all by outlining some specific directions of potential solutions.Existing cryptographicmethods and security approaches arenot suitable for MC systems since do not consider the pecific issuesand challenges, that need ad-hoc solutions.We will discuss directionsin terms of potential solutions by trying to highlight themain advantages and potential drawbacks for each direction considered.We will try to answer to the main questions: 1) why thissolution can be exploited in the MC field to safeguard the systemand its reliability? 2) which are the main issues related to the specificapproach

Nature-inspired survivability: Prey-inspired survivability countermeasures for cloud computing security challenges

As cloud computing environments become complex, adversaries have become highly sophisticated and unpredictable. Moreover, they can easily increase attack power and persist longer before detection. Uncertain malicious actions, latent risks, Unobserved or Unobservable risks (UUURs) characterise this new threat domain. This thesis proposes prey-inspired survivability to address unpredictable security challenges borne out of UUURs. While survivability is a well-addressed phenomenon in non-extinct prey animals, applying prey survivability to cloud computing directly is challenging due to contradicting end goals. How to manage evolving survivability goals and requirements under contradicting environmental conditions adds to the challenges. To address these challenges, this thesis proposes a holistic taxonomy which integrate multiple and disparate perspectives of cloud security challenges. In addition, it proposes the TRIZ (Teorija Rezbenija Izobretatelskib Zadach) to derive prey-inspired solutions through resolving contradiction. First, it develops a 3-step process to facilitate interdomain transfer of concepts from nature to cloud. Moreover, TRIZ’s generic approach suggests specific solutions for cloud computing survivability. Then, the thesis presents the conceptual prey-inspired cloud computing survivability framework (Pi-CCSF), built upon TRIZ derived solutions. The framework run-time is pushed to the user-space to support evolving survivability design goals. Furthermore, a target-based decision-making technique (TBDM) is proposed to manage survivability decisions. To evaluate the prey-inspired survivability concept, Pi-CCSF simulator is developed and implemented. Evaluation results shows that escalating survivability actions improve the vitality of vulnerable and compromised virtual machines (VMs) by 5% and dramatically improve their overall survivability. Hypothesis testing conclusively supports the hypothesis that the escalation mechanisms can be applied to enhance the survivability of cloud computing systems. Numeric analysis of TBDM shows that by considering survivability preferences and attitudes (these directly impacts survivability actions), the TBDM method brings unpredictable survivability information closer to decision processes. This enables efficient execution of variable escalating survivability actions, which enables the Pi-CCSF’s decision system (DS) to focus upon decisions that achieve survivability outcomes under unpredictability imposed by UUUR