INET Seminar Series: Evolving Decentralized and Scalable Technology

Melanie E. Moses, Associate Professor

Dept. of Computer Science
Dept. of Biology (secondary appointment) University of New Mexico, Santa Fe Institute External Faculty

The slow beat of an elephant’s heart reflects dozens of other rates that are systematically slower (e.g., reproductive rates and growth rates) and times that are systematically longer (e.g., blood circulation times and lifespans) in larger animals. A simple model shows that energy distribution through centralized networks, like the cardiovascular network, is characterized by diminishing returns, explaining why larger animals evolve slower life histories. The same model explains how, in contrast, information throughput in microprocessors evolves to be faster and more energy efficient. Our analysis suggests how decentralized communication increases scalability in both biology and technology. We demonstrate how technology can leverage evolutionary principles and distributed communication to achieve adaptable, robust and scalable strategies, in this case, in a team of iAnt robots that cooperate to collect resources from noisy unmapped environments.