Guest guest Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 I agree. the general rules of life if true should apply everywhere and in every science. Have you ever seen the book Bionomics? It shows how our economy is just like an ecosystem, follows the same rules as nature. As you point out these rules also apply to information technology. They have a little institute too. http://www.bionomics.org/ of course in any of these systems too much diversity is also a problem. Imagine the extreme of only one kind of everything, or if every single person spoke a different language, or if every computer used a different operating system. There are benefits to uniformity as well as diversity, its just that open free systems naturally find the proper balance. -joe > > I know some of us have been concerned about crop monoculture ... > variety equals health. I thought it ironic (although accurate) that > the same principle applies to computers (esp. these darn worm > emails that keep jamming my inbox). Anyway, it's neat how > these principles apply across the sciences ... this would probably > give more publicity to the monoculture crop debate too. > > http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2004/02/15/monoculture/index.html > > > Feb. 15, 2004 | CAMBRIDGE, Ma. (AP) -- Dan Geer lost his job, but gained his audience. The very idea that got the computer security expert fired has sparked serious debate in information technology. > > The idea, borrowed from biology, is that Microsoft Corp. has nurtured a software " monoculture " that threatens global computer security. > > Geer and others believe Microsoft's software is so dangerously pervasive that a virus capable of exploiting even a single flaw in its operating systems could wreak havoc. > > Just this past week, Microsoft warned customers about security problems that independent experts called among the most serious yet disclosed. Network administrators could only hope users would download the latest patch. > > > -- Heidi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 >There are benefits to uniformity >as well as diversity, its just that open free systems naturally find >the proper balance. > >-joe Yeah, I like the " balance " part. The computer modelling of systems is really fascinating -- none of the models is really complete at this point, of course, but even in what they CAN model they get interesting results. -- Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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