intertwingly

Jon Udell:  But it was hard to avoid concluding that "autonomic" for IBM has become what ".Net" is for Microsoft: an umbrella marketing term that encompasses everything and nothing in particular.  Ouch!  No, not for IBM or autonomic, but for MS and .NET, which apparently has now become the standard by which zealous marketing is measured against.  And, for the record, my perception is that push for autonomic is low key, but I might be biased.

My own thoughts on autonomic computing are not fully formed.  But I do see an analogy to the SEI Capability Maturity Model for Software, with the steps being reordered 1, 4, 5, 2, 3.  And instead of automating human processes, it is applying biological principles to computer processes.

My own belief is that as things scale, we won't see an Internet Operating System in the classical sense.  An operating system is centrally planned and managed economy.  It is what occurs within a cell.  Surrounding a cell is trust boundary.  Cells will communicate via messages.  More on this in neurotransmitters.