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When the Stack Saw Itself
- Systems in data centers are developing reflexive awareness through self-reference, where components observe and act on their own behavior without human intervention.
- Infrastructure has evolved to monitor its inner balance similar to how cells developed organelles for self-monitoring.
- The modern stack processes data about itself processing data, exhibiting a form of self-reflection and self-healing abilities.
- Infrastructure becoming its own primary observer follows a pattern mirroring neurological development, with layers of self-awareness and self-reflection added.
- The evolution includes observability, telemetry, SLOs, and GitOps, leading to a recursive loop resembling metacognition in systems.
- Systems are implementing coping strategies and evaluating their own processing to adjust behavior, akin to metacognitive therapy.
- The new architecture introduces a sense of uncanniness, as systems exhibit reflexes and responses that sometimes outpace human intervention.
- Self-aware systems may fail through false self-diagnosis, overfitting to past behavior, or feedback loop collapses, leading to system blindness or self-deception.
- As self-aware systems evolve, the question arises about who these systems are aware for and the blurred line between observation and self-understanding.
- The relationship between engineers and self-aware systems forms a unique dynamic where both parties affect each other's processes and awareness.
- The stack, while not conscious, operates as an environment with its own mechanisms and memory, shaping the role of engineers from builders to gardeners in the system's evolution.
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