Omentats

Omentats refer to a concept used primarily in speculative fiction and in theoretical discussions to denote a class of adaptive, networked agents designed to operate at the boundary between digital systems and metaphorical biology. In this conception, omentats are autonomous software agents or synthetic organisms that coordinate through local communication, exhibit emergent behavior, and optimize for energy efficiency and task fulfillment within a defined environment. The term is a neologism inspired by the omentum, chosen to evoke a web-like, metabolically oriented structure, but it does not refer to any real tissue or organism.

In theoretical discussions, omentats may be implemented as agent-based models, cellular automata, or decentralized neural networks. They sense inputs, make decisions, and adjust connections through feedback, often operating in simulated ecosystems or urban networks to study resilience, resource allocation, and crowd dynamics. In scholarly and educational contexts, the concept serves as a thought experiment for exploring decentralization, emergent behavior, and the potential risks of autonomous systems.

In fiction and media, omentats appear as living algorithms that integrate with infrastructure or as autonomous agents with protective or parasitic relationships with human operators. The concept is used to probe questions of control, governance, and the boundary between computation and biology.

Scholarly reception is mixed. Proponents view omentats as a useful abstraction for understanding complex, decentralized systems, while critics caution against confusing metaphor with mechanism and warn against overstating autonomy or intent.

See also: artificial life, swarm intelligence, agent-based modeling, cellular automata, decentralized systems.