Engineered Self-Organization in Natural and Man-Made Systems

Abstract

We present here the recent developments in the studies of self-organization in abiotic, biotic (bacterial) colonies and man-made (programmable chips) systems, aimed at seeking to unravel the general principles of biotic self-organization. A typical bacterial colony consists of 10⁹ – 10¹² bacteria. It is not created by pre-design or according to a plan, but through a process of biotic selforganization. The elements (bacteria) store the information for creating the needed “tools” and the guiding principles needed for the colonial self-organization. Additional information is cooperatively generated as the organization proceeds following external stimulations. The outcome is an adaptable complex system that can perform many tasks, learn and change itself accordingly. Consequently, the idea of engineered self-organization is to let many collections of element self-organize in a pre-engineered environment they can exchange information with. The most efficient collections will be let to further self-improve via evolution algorithms of the components internal structure and capabilities (the analog of evolution of the potential for gene expression). The system itself should regulate the evolution of its components.