Self Organising Systems
A.k.a. plug ‘n play - Appletalk and XNS did this well - infra-structure free self-configurating - e..g find address, find other appliances and services
Often driven by a good, lightweight distributed directory service (content addressable memory on net)
Needs to be utterly foolproof and secure (better than hi-fi cables:-)
Harder to do for sensor nets (smart concrete/clothes or medicare - Mosaic)