Technological and biological systems' resilience: Observations and learnings

Technological systems have become progressively more complex, indispensable and ubiquitous, as has the inevitability of failures. These appreciations have generated increased interest in resilience. At present, the resilience of technological systems is highly dependent on ad-hoc and abstract problem solving provided by humans, and specifically their agency to repair damage: such dependence will inevitably become less practical as technological systems become more complex, and are impractical even now for systems that are inaccessible to humans. Biological systems, by contrast, typically demonstrate truly spectacular resilience, evidenced by the capability to self-repair deterioration and injury over millennia. Definitions of resilience commonly assemble multiple concepts describing the achievement of ‘resilience’ and the means by which this is achieved. Breaking down these concepts as they are applied to biological and technological systems allows useful analysis of the concepts that inhibit or promote resilience in technological systems. This paper attempts to learn from resilience processes as these are applied within biological systems, in order to clarify understanding of the basis for resilience of current and future technological systems. We propose that principles demonstrated to achieve high levels of resilience in biological system, can increase the resilience of technological systems.