General Theory of Information and Self-Managing Secure Services on the Internet
Rao Mikkilineni, W. Patrick Kelly · Preprints.org · 2024
The Internet provides an endless supply of information, enables communication, collaboration, and commerce at a global scale, and supports businesses large and small with platforms for e-commerce, remote work, and digital marketing. On the other hand, our privacy and security are threatened by hackers and fraudsters. The anonymity on the Internet often leads to abuse. Large investments and various efforts from governments, private companies, and regulators are of no avail. In this paper, we argue that these issues are not solvable through operational improvements but stem from the foundational issues related to the computing models upon which the information technologies are built. Recent advances in the General Theory of Information provide insights to improving the computing structures that mimic living organisms with self-regulation and cognitive capabilities to detect threats and defend themselves using inherited and learned knowledge. A three-tier Internet architecture is suggested, and its properties are explored. It is oriented at improving the security and safety of the Internet functioning and providing better tools for interaction between consumers and Internet services. The suggested architecture is based on biological analogies, innovative computational models, such as structural machines and grid automata, as well as on the far-reaching general theory of information.