Emergent engineering: design of evolvable architectures for large scale enetworked systems

如何打造我们的电子网络世界的神经系统，使其能够在具有挑战性的时代无缝进化，并适应不仅要迎接意想不到的事情并幸存下来，而且要在意外中茁壮成长？认识到工程学在处理高度复杂的系统方面的根本局限性，我们正面探讨了由无处不在的计算和通信环境带来的范式的根本性转变，这些环境通过eNetworks以前所未有的方式将系统和人联系在一起。这些被称为网络物理生态系统(CPE)的新技术发展的一个主要特征是，鉴于其本身的性质，它们不能是先验定义的，而是出现在各个组成部分之间的相互作用中，即由电子网络促进的相互作用。这以颠覆性的方式挑战了传统主流工程学派的核心。本质上，设计者在设计组织、系统和软件蓝图中的传统主动角色，即通过遵循分层的、自顶向下的线性思维来预先定义系统及其性能需求，正受到电子联网CPE的紧急行为的根本挑战，该行为要求设计者在系统显现其组织结构的过程中扮演被动观察者的角色，该过程是由无数基本组件之间的相互作用产生的。我们的目标是解开“eNetwork DNA”，并将其应用于类似于DNA如何塑造自然系统中的基本细胞，从而使它们能够进化以适应环境或内部运行条件的逐渐或突然变化。针对新的应急工程科学的研究为当今至关重要的广泛应用开辟了前景，这些应用包括：通过部署整体安全生态系统应对灾害、绿色发电和配电、缓解流行病、联网运输和制造、环境监测和可持续性评估。

How to craft the nervous system of our eNetworked world to enable seamless evolution through challenging times and adaptation not only to meet the unexpected and survive it, but thrive on it? Recognizing the fundamental limitations of engineering in dealing with highly complex systems, we frontally approach the radical shift of paradigm, brought by the ubiquity of computing and communication environments that link systems and people in unprecedented ways via eNetworks. One major characteristic of these new technological developments, termed here Cyber-Physical Ecosystems (CPE) - is that, given their very nature, they cannot be a-priori defined - but rather emerge from the interactions between individual components, interactions facilitated by the eNetworks. This challenges the traditional mainstream engineering school of thought in its very core in disruptive ways. In essence, the traditional active role of the designer in crafting the organizational, systems and software blueprint 'with the end in mind', namely by a-priory defining the system and its performance requirements following a hierarchical, 'top-down' linear thinking is being fundamentally challenged by the emergent behavior of eNetworked CPE which demand the designer to rather take the passive role of observer in the process of 'self-design' by which the system emerges its organizational structure resulted from the interactions between a myriad of elementary components. We aim to unravel an 'eNetwork DNA' and put it to work similarly to how DNA molds the fundamental cells in natural systems such that they can evolve to accommodate gradual or abrupt change in the environment or internal operating conditions. The aimed at new science of emergent engineering opens the perspective towards a wide range of applications critical today, including: disaster response through deployment of holistic security ecosystems, green electricity generation and distribution, pandemic mitigation, networked transportation and manufacturing, environmental monitoring and sustainability assessment.