What Reasonable Guarantees Can We Make for a SISSY System?

Before a self-integrating and self-improving (SISSY) system can become operational, we will have to demonstrate that some system properties and behaviors can be guaranteed to a reasonable degree. Reasonable means to the extent that, depending upon the application and functions of the system, we can use the system because we can guarantee some behaviors and properties to perform properly regardless of input, operational environment, or system goals. In this short paper, we discuss three classes of behaviors that can be guaranteed; these guarantees can be made through a combination of traditional pre-operational testing and confirmed with continual self testing during operations. These can be briefly summarized as: (1) Fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) and top down failure analysis; (2) Minimal self-protection; (3) Minimal acceptable performance.