Biological metaphors in the design of complex software systems

In this paper we discuss metaphors inspired by structural biology, genetics , neurology and immunology for building complex software ystems. Structural biology offers hints for software composition. Genetics provides ideas to construct software modules from descriptions. A network of software agents could emulate the nervous system, coordinate various activities and mediate amongst interacting entities. Immunology inspires the design of secure sys tems. As a case study we present Bond, a distributed-object system providin g agent support for network centric computing. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.