Immunity Design Principles

Book published by Oxford University Press. The full title is 'Design Principles for the Immune System and Other Distributed Autonomous Systems', but that's a bit too much of a mouthful for a WikiName. ISBN 0195137000 . The book is written by a group of scientists from diverse fields: from pathology to computer science, taking in neurobiology and chemistry along the way. If you're a biology student looking for an introductory textbook in immunology, keep looking; if, however, you're a biologist interested in computationally-flavoured approaches, or a computer scientist interested in biologically-inspired approaches, check it out.

Perhaps the most interesting paper in the book is the one by Charles Orosz. He gives three principles used in immune system network design:

• Phylogenic Layering - Newer more refined systems co exist with older more primitive systems and depend on them to set the environment correctly for their action. The older systems provide 'scaffolding' for the newer systems. One way to look at it is that the newer systems fine-tune the older systems.
• Parallel Processing - By our normal standards the immune system is highly wasteful. The system works by 'mass action' with swarms of cells and molecules interacting with the site of infection. Apparently healthy cells may be destroyed by apoptosis for apparently arbitrary reasons. Such waste is not actually a problem. The key life-or-death problem is correct recognition of a threat to the organism. It is NOT done by single cells, but rather by swarms of cells. There are many alternative routes to elimination of a pathogen.
• Dynamic Engagement - The way the cell swarms interact with the pathogen is highly dynamic and configurable through subtle changes in inter-cell communication. Large numbers of cells interact, each briefly, so that the danger of a compromised cell in the defence is reduced and a form of 'voting' by the immune system is created.

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Relevance to Design Patterns:

See the book. The book is a discussion of a complex design. It does not discuss design patterns at all. Clearly this kind of design is a motif that occurs outside immune systems - and perhaps when it is better understood some design pattern(s) will be abstracted from it. If you are interested in new ways to avoid monolithic (and fragile) programs, some of the papers in this book should set your cogs whirring.

Obviously the word 'design' is being used somewhat loosely in this context (unless you're a creationist!).

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Relevance to Wikis:

WikiWiki is founded on the utopian premise that the kind givers in the community will swamp out the mean takers. Each feature added to wiki disrupts this balance in ways that are hard to predict.

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