The society of distributed objects

Abstract

This is a position paper that suggests changing the way we treat the technical problems that remain in defining a viable pervasive distributed object computing platform. The essence of this change is to determine a set of common computing behavior rules that lead focus research and development on a less complex path to a solution that the rank and file can (and must) trust. This change is akin to treating the distributed objects as members of a society where they follow interaction rules, and they trust that others will do the same. Such a set of rules will minimize both the comlplexity of the solution and the number of potential solutions, thus speed research towards the goal of a distributed computing platform that is industrially viable, broadly usable, trusted, and depended upon.