Lymph node inspired computing: towards holistic immune system inspired algorithms for human-engineered complex systems

The immune system is a distributed decentralized system that functions without any centralized control. The immune system has millions of cells that function somewhat independently and can detect and respond to pathogens with considerable speed and efficiency. Lymph nodes are physical anatomical structures that allow the immune system to rapidly detect pathogens and mobilize cells to respond to it. Lymph nodes function as: 1) information processing centers, and 2) a distributed detection and response network. We introduce biologically inspired computing that uses lymph nodes as inspiration. We outline applications to diverse domains like mobile robots, distributed computing clusters, peer-to-peer networks and online social networks. We argue that lymph node inspired computing systems provide powerful metaphors for distributed computing and complement existing artificial immune systems. We view our work as a first step towards holistic simulations of the immune system that would capture all the complexities and the power of a complex adaptive system like the immune system. Ultimately this would lead to holistic immune system inspired computing that captures all the complexities and power of the immune system in human-engineered complex systems.