Social and evolutionary perspectives on resource management problems in networks

In this talk, we consider a range of fundamental problems facing computer and social networks, albeit from a social and evolutionary vantage point.  These include: the deleterious impact of autonomy on connection throughput in mobile ad-hoc networks; the loss in utility for secondary users in cognitive radio societies arising from senseless contention over spectrum holes; the continual emergence and propagation of new malware strains amidst a shifting environment of operating system upgrades; and others. We show that many aspects of these problems can be cast and addressed in terms of social dynamics: behavioral adaptation and social organization in growing consumer populations facing bounded resource structures (to wit, a tension between Moore's Law and Shannon's limit) and the resulting co-evolution of digital societies within digital environments.