Systomics: Toward a biology of system of systems

Brian Sauser, John Boardman, Dinesh Verma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper will propose to do as von Bertalanffy once did, and that is to draw on the biological sciences, now hugely advanced beyond that ever imagined by von Bertalanffy and his peers, and use its findings, architectures, and emergent behaviors to argue for a biology of system of systems (SoS). We seek a science and approach that we believe will provide richer insight into SoS failure, health maintenance, repair, replication, growth, and mutationall those features of the evolution of systems which constantly challenge us and which, thus far, we have only been able to explain via macrolevel models and tools. We propose to go deeper into the structure of these systems and to discover their DNA (building blocks), thus establishing a foundation to understand their behavior using biological analogies, which we believe will turn out to be more than metaphors. We assert that these systems have microstructures which will explain their individual life cycle and their communal ecology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5467221
Pages (from-to)803-814
Number of pages12
JournalIEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part A:Systems and Humans
Volume40
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2010

Keywords

  • System of systems
  • Systomics

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