Future computer systems will be much more integrated into the fabric of everyday life than today's computers are. They will become smaller, more appropriate for their use, integrated into everyday objects and often virtually or physically invisible to the users. They will be also deployed in a much higher quantity and penetrate many application areas. To provide such features and functionality, computer devices become tinier yet still increase in complexity; they must consume less power, while still supporting advanced computation and communications, such that they are highly connected yet still operate as autonomous units.

The principle approach is to enhance system functionality and adaptability by recognizing context and situations in the environment. Organic computing addresses high system complexity by drawing analogies from complex biological systems, with the human-centered goal of self-organization.Organic computing investigates the design and implementation of self-managing systems.

Organic computing aims at the systematic, top-down design and construction of highly reliable and adaptive organic computing applications. Reliability here means preservation of functional correctness, safety and security under unexpected disturbances and component failures. Adaptability in the context is related to adaptive system behaviour under changing requirements and modified tasks.

Organic Computing and a growing Science of Organization will come to be the capstone of science and the foundation of technology. This development will take decades. However, a first wave of organic computing structures may perhaps materialize much sooner in the domains of man-machine interfaces, artificial perception, autonomous robotics, and natural language processing. Eventually, however, this development will lead to mastery of life as a technology, to broad medical applications, to electronic organisms and perhaps even to a better understanding and management of our society and ourselves.