Also known as Programmed Cell Death. The principle is that every "healthy" cell (or computer in a muticellular computing network) must be prepared to suicide if needed for the benefit of the organism as a whole because, after all, we are talking about multicellular architecture here.
The organism as a whole is more important than any given cell. We see ants and bees sacrifice themselves for the good of the colony. Cells do likewise.
There are three main reasons for cell suicide:
1) During development some anatomical features are temporary, e.g., a tadpole's tail or the webbing between our fingers,
2) Normal cell turnover and maintenance requires about half of the cells in the human body to suicide and be replaced each year; and
3) Cells suicide when they recognize that they are infected by viruses, detect mistakes in DNA copying or DNA damage from toxic chemicals or radiation, or are physically detached from their proper place in the body, i.e., detached from the stigmergy structure.
Similar kinds of circumstances can occur in multicellular networks. So programmed apoptosis will find an important place in computing as well.
From Cyberyota's four principles.