Comment by brador

8 years ago

The problem with systems is emergent and unexpected behaviour.

Things can go very bad very quickly once a death spiral kicks in.

5 comments

brador

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loa-in-backup  8 years ago

Since emergent behavior itself, is wanted, the unexpected subset is what you imply is detrimental, but that's the case for programs as well.

  • Jtsummers  8 years ago

    Emergent behavior isn't always wanted. Sometimes it's desirable (Oh, this widget can be copy/pasted into other documents! I didn't expect that to work yet.) Sometimes it's not (I can't figure out why this bot keeps stacking boxes. Patrolling the area is supposed to be its highest priority right now.).

    Sometimes we can deliberately induce emergent behavior (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_planning_and_schedul...) by composing our system correctly. To create behaviors and solutions that we didn't initially conceive of. But if unplanned emergent behavior shows up, your system has become unmaintainable until you've identified the causes.