Today's distributed and pervasive computing addresses large-scale cyber-physical ecosystems, characterised by dense and large networks of devices capable of computation, communication and interaction with the environment and people. While most research focusses on treating these systems as "composites" (i.e., heterogeneous functional complexes), recent developments in fields such as self-organising systems and swarm robotics have opened up a complementary perspective: treating systems as "collectives" (i.e., uniform, collaborative, and self-organising groups of entities). This article explores the motivations, state of the art, and implications of this "collective computing paradigm" in software engineering, discusses its peculiar challenges, and outlines a path for future research, touching on aspects such as macroprogramming, collective intelligence, self-adaptive middleware, learning, synthesis, and experimentation of collective behaviour.

翻译：当今分布式与普适计算技术致力于处理大规模网络物理生态系统，这些系统以密集且庞大的设备网络为特征，能够进行计算、通信以及与环境和人类交互。尽管大多数研究聚焦于将这些系统视为"复合体"（即异构功能复合系统），但自组织系统与群体机器人等领域的最新进展开辟了一个互补的视角：将系统视为"集体"（即统一、协作且自组织的实体群组）。本文探讨了这种"集体计算范式"在软件工程中的动因、研究现状与影响，论述了其特有的挑战，并勾勒出未来研究路径，涉及宏观编程、集体智能、自适应中间件、学习、综合以及集体行为实验等多个方面。