Dreams, Lies, and the Autonomous Web

Dreams, Lies, and the Autonomous Web

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, and the push for microservices development all rely on the same basic software principle: increased autonomy for machines. To date, most of this autonomy has been accomplished by creating highly accurate, custom-built operating systems that operate within a closed system of components that operate on the same shared data models. The cost of increased autonomy has been limited ability to interact with other systems.

Yet, in nature, cross­system interaction is common and, indeed, essential. Recent work on how the brain works, how animals communicate, and how adaptation works shows that the key to success is not accuracy in communications, but the opposite ­­approximation. It is approximate understanding that leads to interpretation, assumption, and creative thinking. Attempts to build computer systems that are ever more exact are actually heading us in the wrong direction.

In this talk, Mike Amundsen draws on material from social sciences, communication theory, and systems design to outline a future model of computing that relies on fuzzy logic, approximation, and built­in inaccuracies to help create robust machine­to­machine communications that can lead to new autonomous software that can go beyond the original programming and result in new functionality and efficiencies when interacting with other systems.

Director of API Architecture, API Academy, CA Technologies

An internationally known author and lecturer, Mike Amundsen travels throughout the world consulting and speaking on a wide range of topics including distributed network architecture, Web application development, and other subjects.

In his role of Director of Architecture for the API Academy, Amundsen heads up the API Architecture and Design Practice in North America. He is responsible for working with companies to provide insight on how best to capitalize on the myriad opportunities APIs present to both consumers and the enterprise.

Amundsen has authored numerous books and papers on programming over the last 15 years. His last book was a collaboration with Leonard Richardson titled "RESTful Web APIs" published in 2013. His 2011 book, “Building Hypermedia APIs with HTML5 and Node”, is an oft-cited reference on building adaptable Web applications. He is currently working to complete a new book - "Learning Client Hypermedia" due out from O’Reilly in late 2015.