The Grand Principle of Independence ;-)

Remember Darwin ? The natural selection rule ? Well, what this rules states is that structures (ie. patterns) evolves and those which survive (ie. persit) are those which are better at... surviving.

In mathematics, this is called "stability". If the functions is "time passes", then the patterns which survives are those which are of the most stable (ie. unchanging) through this function. So now the criteria for evolution is stability. But how a structure can be stable when interacting with the rest of the world ? Precisely by lowering its dependence to the rest of the world and by minimizing interaction with it. This is better known as independence.



Independence seems to be a very important rule for the evolution of patterns, living or dead, material or not. As a pattern is just an abstraction, it is more immaterial than material. How do we define a pattern actually ? It's something that stand out of the mass of the world, which can be identified, recognized as time passes or when moving to another place. So it is somewhat independent already. But if we consider a localized pattern (across time instead of across space), the more it is independant, the more it persists. The most obious example of that would a living cell (delimited by its membrane, etc.) But the rule of independance also applies to ideas and objects. You could also consider a mountain: it has a lot of small interactions at its surface but its negligible compared to its interaction with itself (the volume) and the rest of the Earth.

The rule of independence is an important rule when you consider software engineering (which is basically a science of information/pattern organization + human interface). It is the basic motivation behind free software and open standards. It was the basic motivation behing the API concept, the oriented-object concept, the aspect oriented programming concept, the web service concept, the signal and slot mechanism, the Peer-2-Peer idea, the high level programming language concept, the virtual machine concept, the cross-platform need. The network allows to access data from everywhere, ths accessible data is independent from your location. The whole "heavy GUI" vs "thin client" vs "web site" problematics is related to accessing data, programs and services independently of your location. The "Grid" thing and the "On Demand" thing that IBM likes to fuss about is about independence from your local ressources and infrastructures.

Even the success of Google compared to other search engine is in part due to the trust people have in Google. The Google search results are more independent from financial interests than, say, Altavista.

Independence is what governments and clients wants from Microsoft.

Independence is what people have fought for in many wars.

What do you think ? Is the independence rule as important as I think it is ?

Or is it a too vague concept which can encompass the world+dog ?

Is this rule of any practical help to understand reality ?