1.
Software Architecture:
Lessons from Nature
Riccardo M Bennett-Lovsey
Founder – Zametek.com

2.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfYf_rPWUdY

3.
Source: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020

4.
“The definition of evolutionary architecture that
we state here includes two critical characteristics:
incremental and guided.”
– Building Evolutionary Architectures

5.
Change is inevitable
(but never free)

6.
Nature abhors a vacuum
(no niche remains empty for very long)

7.
Stress begets innovation
(be a Raccoon, not a Panda)

8.
Some mistakes can never be fixed
(live with it!)

9.
Source: https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app57/app20110019.pdf

10.
Volatility is a feature, not a bug!
(find the sweet-spot between order and chaos)

11.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI8yKN-WoUs

12.
Encapsulation

13.
Modularity

14.
Data Contract/API

15.
Exceptions

16.
Layered
Architectures

17.
Inheritance
& Polymorphism

18.
Engines Orchestrators
Factories

19.
A B
A B
A B

20.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37667-4
N = nodes
K = average inputs
P = bias function

21.
• Ordered
• Fixed pattern of behaviour
• Chaotic
• Random patterns of behaviour
• Critical
• Thin line between Order and Chaos
• Exhibit spontaneous order
• Multiple stable patterns of behaviour (Attractors)
• 𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 ≈ 𝑁

22.
Order Chaos
We should be here

23.
Source: https://twitter.com/phennex/status/1296052325266657281

24.
Sustainable Criticality
• Live projects need to achieve and maintain a state of Criticality
• Change must be as easy as possible, but no easier
• View the ability to accommodate change as an investment
• Prepare your architecture for a graceful death
• Architect:
• Part Engineer
• Part Gardener
• Part Medic
• Part Raccoon
• Not a Panda

25.
Recommended Reading
• Biomimicry Institute
• https://biomimicry.org/
• “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature”
• Janine Benyus
• “Residuality Theory, random simulation, and attractor networks”
• Barry O’Reilly, Procedia Computer Science, vol. 201 (2022), pages 639-645
• “The Edge of Organization: Chaos and Complexity Theories of Formal Social Systems”
• Russ Marion