Antifragility From An Applied Scientific Discipline Perspective
I read Nassim Taleb's some dainty reviews of the book inward diverse places. My intention hither is non to review the book, but to endeavour to expect at antifragility from an applied scientific discipline perspective. Unfortunately, this came out generally equally rambling, but hither it is for what it is worth.
Robust-yet-fragile. A skillful instance hither is the glass. Glass (think of automobile spectacles or gorilla glass) is genuinely really tough/robust material. You tin throw pebbles, together with fifty-fifty bigger rocks at it, together with it won't interruption or scratch, well, upward to a signal that is. The drinking glass is really robust to the anticipated faults (stressor) upward to a point. But, transcend that point, together with therefore the drinking glass is inward shambles. That shows an unanticipated stressor (a dark swan trial inward Taleb's jargon) for the glass: a ninja stone. The ninja stone is basically a slice of ceramic that y'all stimulate got from the spark plug, together with is denser than glass. So if y'all gently throw this really trivial slice of ceramic to your machine window, it breaks inward shambles. This is a well-known clit a fast i on to interruption into cars.
This is called a robust-yet-fragile structure, together with this is genuinely why nosotros had the Titanic disaster. Titanic, the ship, had really robust panels, but over again upto a point. When Titanic exceeded that signal a trivial fleck (with the iceberg hitting it), the panels broke into shambles, really much similar the drinking glass coming together ninja stone. Modern ships later Titanic, went for resilient, instead of robust (yet fragile) panels. The resilient panels curvature easier, but they don't interruption equally miserably. They withal agree together to the confront of an extreme stressor. Think of plastic; it is less robust but to a greater extent than resilient than glass.
The robust-yet-fragile consequence is also known equally highly optimized tolerance. If y'all optimize tolerance for i anticipated stressor, y'all larn really vulnerable to about other unanticipated fault. (Much similar the unopen Australian ecosystem.) There is some literature on robust yet delicate systems.
Resilient. Robust systems mask stressors (upto a point), together with they optimize for surely anticipated stressors together with neglect miserably for unanticipated stressors. The resilient organization approach is the opposite. It prescribes non to mask stressors; the stressors perturb the organization somewhat, but y'all eventually recover from them. A skillful slogan for resilience is robust-yet-flexible. These systems stretch somewhat amongst the stressor, but non neglect completely or discretely.
Engineers encompass resilience today. We tin consider this thought inward construction, inward bridges, skycrapers, which are built inward a flexible agency to sway somewhat amongst current of air together with earthquakes but non neglect completely. In fact, past times flexing/stretching a fleck amongst stressors, these systems rest unharmed together with concluding longer, equally they tolerate the shocks past times rolling amongst them instead of absorbing the shocks fully.
Today, it is to a greater extent than or less established that systems should aim to discover stressors/faults/problems inward about suitable manner, rather than shroud them. Even equally a organization masks problems, it should at to the lowest degree report/log them. Otherwise your organization volition cash inward one's chips like shooting fish in a barrel together with y'all won't know (such accounts are to a greater extent than mutual than y'all would imagine).
Antifragility inward mechanical systems. Taleb emphasizes repeatedly that the antifragility thought is non robust together with non merely resilient. An antifragile organization thrives nether failures, non merely tolerate it. Resilient is improve than robust(-yet-fragile), together with antifragile is improve than resilience inward this respect.
Taleb says inward the mass that i of the few examples of antifragile materials he knows is carbon nanotubes, which gets stronger when faced amongst a stressor. Here is about other antifragile material, The impossibility results (such equally FLP together with attacking generals) are circumscribed past times probabilistic algorithms. Some algorithms specifically create goodness from the randomness: the random the procedure the improve they fare. A dainty mass has been written past times Rajiv Motwani together with Prabhakar Raghawan on randomized algorithms.
Randomness is particularly smashing for breaking ties, together with used inward networking together with distributed systems literature for that. For example, inward the ethernet together with wifi protocols, random backoffs are used therefore that communication over a shared medium is possible at all. Do these examples count equally antifragility?
This also reminds me of an instance from the Sync mass past times Strogatz (which is an fantabulous mass nigh research, read it if y'all haven't already). Strogatz has formulated a sync work for runners on a running track. "Each runner has his ain speed, which is analogous to the frequency of an oscillator, together with all the runners call at together with are heard past times every other runner, which is analogous to the coupling betwixt the oscillators. Depending on the initial weather condition together with the setup of the coupling, a grouping of runners may synchronize into a unmarried block all running at the same speed, autumn into chaos everybody running on her own, or anything inward between." It was found that when the runners (speeds together with positions) are non really uniform but rather somewhat random, synchronization was possible together with achieved faster. It was also found that at that topographic point is a abrupt stage transition non-sync together with sync outcomes. I don't know what (if anything) this implies for antifragility.
BitTorrent example. For an antifragile system, the to a greater extent than y'all endeavour to stress the system, the stronger it grows. A smashing instance is bittorrent. In bittorrent, the to a greater extent than a file becomes traffic hotspot, the faster it gets to download it. Bittorrent streams gains from hotspots together with disceptation past times exploiting the Network effect to render scaling. If a file is pop for downloads, therefore its parts are available from to a greater extent than peers, therefore it volition live faster to download it from many peers available.
Self-stabilization does non gibe the antifragility definition. Since the state corruption abstraction is likewise abstract together with well-defined, the "corruption helps" becomes an oxymoron. Corruption is pre-defined to live the bad thing, therefore it is difficult to play that game. Maybe y'all stimulate got zones of perturbation, together with the farther y'all are perturbed away, the faster y'all recover from it. But, if y'all stimulate got a fast recovery method why non purpose it for the other regions equally well?
Self-adaptive systems, a to a greater extent than recent concept tin gibe the antifragility idea. But self-adaptive systems are non good defined/formalized, together with I am non aware of whatever large success stories from that business of thinking yet. And I approximate the philosophical divergence betwixt self-adaptive versus antifragile systems is that, y'all tin withal stimulate got a predefined/constant antifragile organization that is non self-adaptive. You tin stimulate got an antifragile organization that uses the barbell idea, together with does non create bad inward whatever input, but does smashing inward about inputs. That organization is non adaptive, but it is withal antifragile.
Software rejuvenation. Software rejuvenation tin live an instance of antifragility inward the fault-tolerant computing domain. The software rejuvenation thought is to reset the software occassionally to larn rid of retention leaks, unoptimal or wrong bugs. The antifragility angle is that, if the release of faults increase, y'all start a software rejuvenation. So the increased release of faults helps for faster recovery/rejuvenation of the software. Specifically the Microsoft põrnikas reporting newspaper comes to my mind, which is a genuinely interesting slice of function that appeared inward SOSP 2009. The thought is that if a põrnikas is to a greater extent than prevalent, it is reported to a greater extent than automatically together with is fixed first.
Engineered systems:
Let's start amongst giving examples from the mechanical world. I volition endeavour to give examples for 3 increasingly-superior levels of reliability: robust-yet-fragile < resilient < antifragile.Robust-yet-fragile. A skillful instance hither is the glass. Glass (think of automobile spectacles or gorilla glass) is genuinely really tough/robust material. You tin throw pebbles, together with fifty-fifty bigger rocks at it, together with it won't interruption or scratch, well, upward to a signal that is. The drinking glass is really robust to the anticipated faults (stressor) upward to a point. But, transcend that point, together with therefore the drinking glass is inward shambles. That shows an unanticipated stressor (a dark swan trial inward Taleb's jargon) for the glass: a ninja stone. The ninja stone is basically a slice of ceramic that y'all stimulate got from the spark plug, together with is denser than glass. So if y'all gently throw this really trivial slice of ceramic to your machine window, it breaks inward shambles. This is a well-known clit a fast i on to interruption into cars.
This is called a robust-yet-fragile structure, together with this is genuinely why nosotros had the Titanic disaster. Titanic, the ship, had really robust panels, but over again upto a point. When Titanic exceeded that signal a trivial fleck (with the iceberg hitting it), the panels broke into shambles, really much similar the drinking glass coming together ninja stone. Modern ships later Titanic, went for resilient, instead of robust (yet fragile) panels. The resilient panels curvature easier, but they don't interruption equally miserably. They withal agree together to the confront of an extreme stressor. Think of plastic; it is less robust but to a greater extent than resilient than glass.
The robust-yet-fragile consequence is also known equally highly optimized tolerance. If y'all optimize tolerance for i anticipated stressor, y'all larn really vulnerable to about other unanticipated fault. (Much similar the unopen Australian ecosystem.) There is some literature on robust yet delicate systems.
Resilient. Robust systems mask stressors (upto a point), together with they optimize for surely anticipated stressors together with neglect miserably for unanticipated stressors. The resilient organization approach is the opposite. It prescribes non to mask stressors; the stressors perturb the organization somewhat, but y'all eventually recover from them. A skillful slogan for resilience is robust-yet-flexible. These systems stretch somewhat amongst the stressor, but non neglect completely or discretely.
Engineers encompass resilience today. We tin consider this thought inward construction, inward bridges, skycrapers, which are built inward a flexible agency to sway somewhat amongst current of air together with earthquakes but non neglect completely. In fact, past times flexing/stretching a fleck amongst stressors, these systems rest unharmed together with concluding longer, equally they tolerate the shocks past times rolling amongst them instead of absorbing the shocks fully.
Today, it is to a greater extent than or less established that systems should aim to discover stressors/faults/problems inward about suitable manner, rather than shroud them. Even equally a organization masks problems, it should at to the lowest degree report/log them. Otherwise your organization volition cash inward one's chips like shooting fish in a barrel together with y'all won't know (such accounts are to a greater extent than mutual than y'all would imagine).
Antifragility inward mechanical systems. Taleb emphasizes repeatedly that the antifragility thought is non robust together with non merely resilient. An antifragile organization thrives nether failures, non merely tolerate it. Resilient is improve than robust(-yet-fragile), together with antifragile is improve than resilience inward this respect.
Taleb says inward the mass that i of the few examples of antifragile materials he knows is carbon nanotubes, which gets stronger when faced amongst a stressor. Here is about other antifragile material, The impossibility results (such equally FLP together with attacking generals) are circumscribed past times probabilistic algorithms. Some algorithms specifically create goodness from the randomness: the random the procedure the improve they fare. A dainty mass has been written past times Rajiv Motwani together with Prabhakar Raghawan on randomized algorithms.
Randomness is particularly smashing for breaking ties, together with used inward networking together with distributed systems literature for that. For example, inward the ethernet together with wifi protocols, random backoffs are used therefore that communication over a shared medium is possible at all. Do these examples count equally antifragility?
This also reminds me of an instance from the Sync mass past times Strogatz (which is an fantabulous mass nigh research, read it if y'all haven't already). Strogatz has formulated a sync work for runners on a running track. "Each runner has his ain speed, which is analogous to the frequency of an oscillator, together with all the runners call at together with are heard past times every other runner, which is analogous to the coupling betwixt the oscillators. Depending on the initial weather condition together with the setup of the coupling, a grouping of runners may synchronize into a unmarried block all running at the same speed, autumn into chaos everybody running on her own, or anything inward between." It was found that when the runners (speeds together with positions) are non really uniform but rather somewhat random, synchronization was possible together with achieved faster. It was also found that at that topographic point is a abrupt stage transition non-sync together with sync outcomes. I don't know what (if anything) this implies for antifragility.
BitTorrent example. For an antifragile system, the to a greater extent than y'all endeavour to stress the system, the stronger it grows. A smashing instance is bittorrent. In bittorrent, the to a greater extent than a file becomes traffic hotspot, the faster it gets to download it. Bittorrent streams gains from hotspots together with disceptation past times exploiting the Network effect to render scaling. If a file is pop for downloads, therefore its parts are available from to a greater extent than peers, therefore it volition live faster to download it from many peers available.
Fault-tolerant computing angle
Self-stabilization. In the fault-tolerant computing domain, self-stabilization comes to hear forthwith equally an instance of resiliency. Self-stabilization, offset proposed past times Dijkstra inward 1970s, calls for non categorizing faults but instead to pattern tolerance for anticipated faults. Treat all faults uniformly equally a perturbation to the system, together with pattern your organization to live tolerant to perturbation. So regardless of faults or combinations of faults, your organization is going to recover. This is the self-stabilization view. There has been a lot of function on self-stabilizing calculator systems inward the literature. The trivial kinds of stabilizing systems are soft-state systems, together with restartable systems.Self-stabilization does non gibe the antifragility definition. Since the state corruption abstraction is likewise abstract together with well-defined, the "corruption helps" becomes an oxymoron. Corruption is pre-defined to live the bad thing, therefore it is difficult to play that game. Maybe y'all stimulate got zones of perturbation, together with the farther y'all are perturbed away, the faster y'all recover from it. But, if y'all stimulate got a fast recovery method why non purpose it for the other regions equally well?
Self-adaptive systems, a to a greater extent than recent concept tin gibe the antifragility idea. But self-adaptive systems are non good defined/formalized, together with I am non aware of whatever large success stories from that business of thinking yet. And I approximate the philosophical divergence betwixt self-adaptive versus antifragile systems is that, y'all tin withal stimulate got a predefined/constant antifragile organization that is non self-adaptive. You tin stimulate got an antifragile organization that uses the barbell idea, together with does non create bad inward whatever input, but does smashing inward about inputs. That organization is non adaptive, but it is withal antifragile.
Software rejuvenation. Software rejuvenation tin live an instance of antifragility inward the fault-tolerant computing domain. The software rejuvenation thought is to reset the software occassionally to larn rid of retention leaks, unoptimal or wrong bugs. The antifragility angle is that, if the release of faults increase, y'all start a software rejuvenation. So the increased release of faults helps for faster recovery/rejuvenation of the software. Specifically the Microsoft põrnikas reporting newspaper comes to my mind, which is a genuinely interesting slice of function that appeared inward SOSP 2009. The thought is that if a põrnikas is to a greater extent than prevalent, it is reported to a greater extent than automatically together with is fixed first.
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