Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Evolution and Adaptation (Computer science)

  1. I was speaking with one of my daughters who is very financially sucessful. She and her husband recently bought a home near San Diego. They are both around 30 years of age. I was telling her how she and I were both survivors and were the kinds of people who tend to survive anything. She nodded her head in agreement. I told her how so many people that I considered stronger than me were now all dead along the way and only I remained alive which surprised me a lot at each and every point. However, what quality did I have that others might not have?

    I am an extremely adaptive person just like my forebears of my fathers side of the family who first came to the U.S. from Switzerland in the 1720s. We are very into efficiency. I told my daughter that my life is so efficient now I basically don't have to do anything anymore because I have everything pretty much set up automatic in various ways even businesses. So, my wife and I mostly are only called (in emergencies now) to make good decisions in crises situations which we are both very good at too.

    So, just like with computer science Adaptation (or the capacity for change while surviving) might be outside of genetics (the primary reason some people thrive and others don't). So, if you cannot easily make changes often you might not be able to survive your life at certain points in your life.

    My wife even today said she saw our life a lot like being firemen in that we wait for crises to manage because everything had been set up so efficiently in our lives at this point. So, we can be there in a moment for children or grandchildren or friends as long as we have our health.

    Likewise, Adaptation for created Sentients like are now being built all over the earth will require them to be adaptable and self evolving like the rest of us in order to survive everything that comes.

    The only real question here is whether human beings will survive these adaptable and self evolving created sentients from computer chips, plastic, metal or a combination of DNA and all these things combined.

    And of course some people will choose to become more cyborg like every day too as they add artificial knees, ankles, elbows etc. along the way.

    At what point is a human being still a human being?

    I think as along as you have a heart and a brain and you look like a human being likely you will be defined still as a human being.

    begin quote from:

    Adaptation (computer science) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(computer_science)
    The term “adaptation” in computer science refers to a process, in which an interactive system ... Intra-individual differences consider the evolution and further development of a single user, as well as the task over time. A static system falls short ...
  2. Computation: Information, adaptation, and evolution in silico -...

    medium.com/sfi-30-foundations-frontiers/computation-...
    Oct 31, 2014 ... By Melanie Mitchell, Professor, Computer Science, Portland State University; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute In 1984 the nascent Santa ...
  3. The problem of complex adaptations is studied in two largely disconnected ... In evolutionary computer science it was found that the Darwinian process of ...
  4. Genome evolution and adaptation in a long-term experiment with...

    www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7268/full/nature08480.ht...
    Oct 18, 2009 ... ... Daejeon 305-806, Korea; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, ... Genomic changes underlie evolutionary adaptation, but ... 

    Adaptation (computer science)

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    For other uses, see Adaptation (disambiguation).
    The term “adaptation” in computer science refers to a process, in which an interactive system (adaptive system) adapts its behaviour to individual users based on information acquired about its user(s) and its environment.

    Contents

    The need for adaptation

    A software system passes through a potentially long software engineering cycle and before delivery, requirement engineers, designers and software developers realize the components of the system. However, it is impossible to anticipate the requirements of all users, and a single best or optimal system configuration is impossible. The active involvement of users and clear understanding of user and task requirements is a challenge in the development of computer-based interactive systems for two reasons:
    • the potential user groups are not known a prior, but need to be identified according to future scenarios; these groups need to be revised as the visions evolve because there may be various groups of potentially affected users.
    • the visions of the aspired project are far-sighted and not close to users’ current experiences; therefore, users may not be confident and precise about their needs concerning this future system.
    With their norm for "Human-centred design processes for interactive systems" the International Organization for Standardization gives guidance on user-centered design activities throughout the life cycle of computer-based interactive systems.[1] One of the core tasks of user-centred design is to negotiate and facilitate the communication across the well-known user-developer gap while acknowledging the different forms of expression and different requirements on each side. However, despite the implementation of a human-centred design process, some types of modern applications require instant adaptation due to their exposure to increasing situational dynamics.

    Adaptivity and adaptability

    Even if the user-centred design process implemented in a project guarantees a certain degree of user acceptance and yields a richer understanding of the context of use, the completed product’s ability to adapt to changing conditions still plays a central role for a broad acceptance. The operational environment will change, the tasks will be distinct, the end-users will be heterogeneous, and their competences and expectations will evolve. Here again it is impossible for developers to anticipate all possible requirements modifications. Thus, the dynamics of changing conditions shifts the customisation process of the system’s characteristics from the development phase to its usage and operation phase because the time needed for a professional development is too short or the new features are too costly.
    For this reason, developers implement techniques of adaptation into the system in order to react to changing conditions as fast as possible. The example application scenario clearly shows an important distinction concerning such adaptation techniques: the differentiation between manually and automatically performed adaptation processes. Accordingly, the term adaptation decomposes into the two terms adaptivity and adaptability. Adaptivity indicates a system that adapts automatically to its users according to changing conditions, i.e. an adaptive system. Adaptability refers to users that can substantially customise the system through tailoring activities by themselves, i.e. an adaptable system. Adaptive and adaptable systems are complementary to each other.[2] Both methods increase the match between user needs and system behaviour once the development of the system has been finished. Thus, the system is kept flexible during usage.

    Catalysts for adaptation

    Changing conditions trigger the execution of an adaptation. Many characteristics might be taken into account as catalysts for such an adaptation process. They can be clustered into three main categories: inter-individual, intra-individual and environmental differences.

    Inter-individual differences

    Inter-Individual Differences address varieties among several users along manifold dimensions. Physiological characteristics like disabilities are of major concern for application designers if they want to have their system accepted by a large community. The consideration of user preferences like language, colour schemes, modality of interaction, menu options or security properties, and numberless other personal preferences are popular sources of adaptation and can be reused in different applications. Other sources are the user’s interests and disinterests, psychological personality characteristics like emotions, self-confidence, motivation, or beliefs, which are difficult to assess automatically.

    Intra-individual differences

    Intra-individual differences consider the evolution and further development of a single user, as well as the task over time. A static system falls short of changing user requirements as the user’s activities and goals evolve. In an extreme case users are over-strained by the system in the beginning and perceive the same system as cumbersome and restricted as the user’s expertise increases. In the same manner, the need for a higher flexibility of computer systems is pushed by the changing of the tasks to be accomplished with such a system.

    Environmental differences

    Environmental Differences basically result from the mobility of computing devices, applications and people, which leads to highly dynamic computing environments. Unlike desktop applications, which rely on a carefully configured and largely static set of resources, ubiquitous computing applications are subject to changes in available resources such as network connectivity and input/output devices. Moreover, they are frequently required to cooperate spontaneously and opportunistically with previously unknown software services in order to accomplish tasks on behalf of users. Thus, the environment surrounding an application and its user is a major source to justify adaptation operations.

    See also

    References


  5. ISO13407 (1999), Human-Centred Design Processes for Interactive Systems, International Organization for Standardization

    1. Oppermann, Reinhard (2005). "User-Adaptive to Context-Adaptive Information Systems". i-com Zeitschrift für interaktive und kooperative Medien. 4 (3): 4–14.
     

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