eventually be connected to the network or be within range of a monitoring sensor that is networked (in archetype, Vint Cerf’s smart toaster.) Ubiquitous Networks refers to the interconnection of every network on the planet, such that every person is always connected at any location and any service is instantly available via trans-network communications. It is this complex future - which demands autonomic networks, for this rapidly arriving future is unmanageable by traditional approaches. The EU seems to understand this and is the largest investor into public AN research.

While we tend to separate computers and networks as different areas of study during college, and then partition them as careers later on, the design and function of computers and networks are more similar than different. This separation of network and computer is based on the historical separation of voice and data, and perhaps even more so on ‘large and small’ in scientific inquiry – a classic approach that partitions fields of study and activity. However, both computers and networks are systems and as such are governed by many of the same principles of systems engineering, information theory, and electronics. Computers and networks have co-evolved from the start. Sun Microsystems summed it up with the classic corporate slogan: “The network is the computer.” The scientific revolution that is following on the growth of Complexity Science involves a different way of seeing the world. Instead of separating large from small, Complexity Science shows us how all layers follow similar organizational principles – that each layer reflects the same structure of behavior as the layer above and below. Today, in the study of autonomics, the boundaries of computer and network are particularly indistinct and the academic communities work in tandem. AN networks are designed so that each layer reflects those above and below.

Science Publications (www.scipub.org), New York, in 2006 planned a Special Issue for The