Thursday, August 27, 2009

Late Blight

We speak of information technology in architectural terms. Perhaps we should reconsider the metaphors. Perhaps we would find more clarity in agriculture. For instance: the consequences of monoculture.

Posted by IOZ at 7:18 AM | email »
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10 comments:

Cüneyt said...

Hell, that metaphor works for almost anything in society. Quite apt, IOZ.

8:25 AM
drip said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
8:29 AM
drip said...

Count Zero crossed my mind as I read the NYT story. Add the government protection of monoculture through patents and tariffs and government promotion through direct subsidies and purchases and you have a perfect environment for collapse of the technology. It's as perfect as analogies get.

8:30 AM
Anonymous said...

Ooh, here's another way to think of it:

Every town (cell) should have its own internet (DNA), with communication between cells heavily regulated by deep packet inspection and/or passport-like authentication (antibodies).

Of course overall regulation (to ensure the protections are consistent and functioning) would need to be done by a powerful central authority (brain).

Get it? Government = brain! I'm going to send this to Ted Kennedy's office, he'll love it.

9:15 AM
Anonymous said...

This idea has been a round for a while. It's particularly popular among the Free Software crowd.

9:18 AM
Anonymous said...

For what it is worth, people who work in IT do talk about monocultures, and for exactly the reason you highlight.

A lot of proposals for medium-large scale installations I've been involved with attempt to balance the cost issues of system-heterogeneity with the advantages of noncontagion, be that in the form of attacks or bugs. But cynics think we only do that to seem smart and/or make more money.

9:28 AM
Gridlock said...

Cynics frequently have their belief system validated. Optimists frequently have to amend their belief system.

11:14 AM
Jess said...

For software systems, pretty much any metaphor is better than "architecture" or "engineering". Even the old-timers have realized it at this point.

12:50 PM
Dunc said...

You mean I'm going to have to change my job title from "Senior Software Engineer" to "Senior Software Wrangler" or somesuch?

6:42 AM
drip said...

Round 'em up, move 'em out, Rowdy.

7:13 AM

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