Most of the time when we talk about machines that can work on their own we focus on how smart they're we look at how they can do things and how accurately they can respond to things there is something else that is very important and people do not talk about it very much decision density.
Decision density is about how important decisions a system has to make in a very short time when things are quiet this is not a problem things happen slowly the machine can make decisions one after the other without any trouble.
When things start to happen more quickly decisions start to overlap many tasks want to use the resources at the same time what is important can change while the machine is still working on something.
The machine has to react to signals that are happening at the same time.
Suddenly the machine is not just doing tasks it is also managing a lot of decisions.
This is where many machines that can work on their start to have trouble.
They were made to do tasks not to make decisions at the same time.
When decision density increases several things start to happen:
Resource conflicts
Delayed scheduling
Competing priorities
People have to step in to help the machine make decisions
None of these problems are very serious.
They slow down the machines ability to work on its own.
That is why systems like ROBO within Fabric Foundation are interesting.
The challenge is not just making machines that can do things.
It is making sure the system can handle decisions at the same time without needing people to help.
Good systems can handle decisions well.
They prevent problems before they happen and make sure the machine is working within boundaries.
Bad systems look like they are working well until things get busy.
Then the machine has trouble with many decisions and people have to help.
People who buy and sell things often look at how fast and how much a system can do.
But how well a system that can work on its really works often comes down to something that is not easy to see:
How many decisions can the system handle without people helping.
Because when a machine can work on its own it does not stop working when one decision's wrong.
It stops working when many decisions happen at the same time.
ROBO and decision density are very important to think about.
ROBO has to be able to handle decision density to work well.
Decision density is a problem for machines that can work on their own.
ROBO is a system that can help with this problem.