Review: Remarkable and Wonderful Insight Into Automated Ecolgies and thinking outside the Square
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2014
Adaptive architecture is a system which changes its structure, behaviour or resources according to demand. The adaptation made is usually to non-functional characteristics rather than functional ones.Something of a misnomer, because the thing that adapts is the working system, rather than the (more abstract) architecture which defines the adaptability that is required of that system.Adaptive software architecture: Used by programmers in relation to a program. An adaptive algorithm "is an algorithm which changes its behavior based on the resources available. For example… in the C++ Standard Library, the stable partition [program] acquires as much memory as it can get (up to what it would need at most) and applies the algorithm using that available memory."Adaptive infrastructure architecture: Used by infrastructure engineers in relation to the configuration of processors. The computing resources used by applications (the partition size, or the number of servers in a cluster, or the share of a processor, or the number of processes) are configured so that they shrink or grow with demand.Adaptive business architecture: Could also be used (for example) in connection with a workflow system that assigns human resources to a task or service to match the demand for that task or service. Or an organisation structure that flexes in response to business changes.This highly readable and informative book by Augustine Ong Wing explores the science of adaptive ecologies and architecture in today's modern world and the sustainability of infrastructure within that setting to create optimal outputs for services and the manufacturing industries. I have always been interested in adaptive architectural designs since I first discovered Frank Lloyd Wright and his works. This superlative book, 'Automated Ecologies: Towards an Adaptive Ecology of Mind and Material and Intelligent Machines is highly informative and is useful and ground breaking for the layman as well as the professional in the field. It explores subjects such as, autonomous adaptation, cybernetic ecologies, materialisation and the immaterial, ecology, mode of consumption and the operation of capitalism in a digital enhanced environment for the 21st Century and beyond. A marvellous and thought provoking thesis of great erudition and depth which will have you riveted to your seat from the first page to the very last page. Highly Recommended. Great Buy.