18,748 research outputs found
Systems, Resilience, and Organization: Analogies and Points of Contact with Hierarchy Theory
Aim of this paper is to provide preliminary elements for discussion about the
implications of the Hierarchy Theory of Evolution on the design and evolution
of artificial systems and socio-technical organizations. In order to achieve
this goal, a number of analogies are drawn between the System of Leibniz; the
socio-technical architecture known as Fractal Social Organization; resilience
and related disciplines; and Hierarchy Theory. In so doing we hope to provide
elements for reflection and, hopefully, enrich the discussion on the above
topics with considerations pertaining to related fields and disciplines,
including computer science, management science, cybernetics, social systems,
and general systems theory.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of ANTIFRAGILE'17, 4th International
Workshop on Computational Antifragility and Antifragile Engineerin
On environments as systemic exoskeletons: Crosscutting optimizers and antifragility enablers
Classic approaches to General Systems Theory often adopt an individual
perspective and a limited number of systemic classes. As a result, those
classes include a wide number and variety of systems that result equivalent to
each other. This paper introduces a different approach: First, systems
belonging to a same class are further differentiated according to five major
general characteristics. This introduces a "horizontal dimension" to system
classification. A second component of our approach considers systems as nested
compositional hierarchies of other sub-systems. The resulting "vertical
dimension" further specializes the systemic classes and makes it easier to
assess similarities and differences regarding properties such as resilience,
performance, and quality-of-experience. Our approach is exemplified by
considering a telemonitoring system designed in the framework of Flemish
project "Little Sister". We show how our approach makes it possible to design
intelligent environments able to closely follow a system's horizontal and
vertical organization and to artificially augment its features by serving as
crosscutting optimizers and as enablers of antifragile behaviors.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Reliable Intelligent
Environments. Extends conference papers [10,12,15]. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40860-015-0006-
Antifragility = Elasticity + Resilience + Machine Learning: Models and Algorithms for Open System Fidelity
We introduce a model of the fidelity of open systems - fidelity being
interpreted here as the compliance between corresponding figures of interest in
two separate but communicating domains. A special case of fidelity is given by
real-timeliness and synchrony, in which the figure of interest is the physical
and the system's notion of time. Our model covers two orthogonal aspects of
fidelity, the first one focusing on a system's steady state and the second one
capturing that system's dynamic and behavioural characteristics. We discuss how
the two aspects correspond respectively to elasticity and resilience and we
highlight each aspect's qualities and limitations. Finally we sketch the
elements of a new model coupling both of the first model's aspects and
complementing them with machine learning. Finally, a conjecture is put forward
that the new model may represent a first step towards compositional criteria
for antifragile systems.Comment: Preliminary version submitted to the 1st International Workshop "From
Dependable to Resilient, from Resilient to Antifragile Ambients and Systems"
(ANTIFRAGILE 2014), https://sites.google.com/site/resilience2antifragile
How Resilient Are Our Societies? Analyses, Models, and Preliminary Results
Traditional social organizations such as those for the management of
healthcare and civil defence are the result of designs and realizations that
matched well with an operational context considerably different from the one we
are experiencing today: A simpler world, characterized by a greater amount of
resources to match less users producing lower peaks of requests. The new
context reveals all the fragility of our societies: unmanageability is just
around the corner unless we do not complement the "old recipes" with smarter
forms of social organization. Here we analyze this problem and propose a
refinement to our fractal social organizations as a model for resilient
cyber-physical societies. Evidence to our claims is provided by simulating our
model in terms of multi-agent systems.Comment: Paper submitted for publication in the Proc. of SERENE 2015
(http://serene.disim.univaq.it/2015/
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