I would have still just used the term "blackboard", maybe with a "parallel" adjective thrown in. To me, stigmergy has a distinct connotation of coordination through memories stored *externally *in the environment, as opposed to *internally *in the agent, and I would not consider the blackboard a part of the environment, per se, unless performing some mental gymnastics to show the equivalence of two distinct conceptual structures. One reason to differentiate between the blackboard and the environment is that the agents have complete (shared) control of the blackboard, but not of the external environment. Another is that if you count the blackboard as an environment, you have to maintain two distinct frames for understanding and referencing your architecture with shared terminology: The environment with respect to the greater agent, and the environment (blackboard) with respect to the internal agents that compose the greater agent.
On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 8:17 PM, Piaget Modeler <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes it is. > > Blackboard systems operate in a serial fashion where each agent vies for > control of the blackboard. > > Stigmergic systems generally operate with all agents running in parallel. > > So a stigmergic system which operates on "neural propositions." > > ~PM > > ------------------------------ > Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2015 14:24:53 -0500 > Subject: Re: [agi] Stigmergy > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > In the Piagetian Modeler the substrate contains ideas, solutions, goals, > hypotheses, percepts, and so forth. The agents act upon these "pheromones", > modifying them in various simple ways. The substrate is used for > inter-agent > communication. > > > I didn't realize the system you were building was blackboard-based. I am a > fan of this approach. > > > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 8:56 PM, Piaget Modeler <[email protected] > > wrote: > > It's the basis of the Piagetian Modeler and other agent based systems. > > The agents are like ants which leave pheromones (messages) in the > substrate (typically a blackboard, or database, or knowledge base). > > The substrate evolves over time. > > In the Piagetian Modeler the substrate contains ideas, solutions, goals, > hypotheses, percepts, and so forth. The agents act upon these "pheromones", > modifying them in various simple ways. The substrate is used for > inter-agent > communication. > > ~PM > > > Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 18:26:59 -0400 > > Subject: Re: [agi] Stigmergy > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > > > You can try to use stigmergy as if it were an abstraction that can be > > seen as part of a human-like intelligence but then you would, for > > example, be forced to declare that the more abstract parts of the > > programming were the primitives that were not changing due to the > > memories of events and the integration of those event-memories. But, > > since you would want a secondary abstraction-generation system be > > something that could be learned you would have to reach further into > > the abstractions of the abstractions of the programming to find the > > truly stigmergic part. It is an interesting philosophical exercise but > > can it be used to lead to something new? > > Jim Bromer > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Jim Bromer <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > The definition of stigmergy in Wikipedia is that, "It produces > > > complex, seemingly intelligent structures, without need for any > > > planning, control, or even direct communication between the agents. As > > > such it supports efficient collaboration between extremely simple > > > agents, who lack any memory, intelligence or even individual awareness > > > of each other." > > > So while Facebook, for example, is designed to work based on human > > > responses it does also retain 'marks' which are used to determine a > > > range of actions that can be subsequently taken in response. However, > > > communication between the human agents, who have stores of memories, > > > is the whole reason Facebook has succeeded. Can we look at part of a > > > distributed active system, even one that relies on human IO, and say > > > that part of it is stigmergic? OK, but the next question is why? What > > > can you do with that point of view? I think (it is obvious that) human > > > beings are sometimes reacting without fully realizing what is going on > > > and instead base their responses on prevailing commonalities of > > > insight (like prevailing memes). This kind of reaction might be > > > likened to a stigmergic reaction. Subsequent interactions can then be > > > used to refine the first attempts to understand what is going on (or > > > what someone else is trying to say.) So perhaps by looking at > > > foundational or simple methods that can combine stigmergy with more > > > traditional AI methods so that stigmergic reactions can be integrated > > > with previous reactions (for example successive statements) someone > > > might be able to gain a little more insight in AGI. However, this > > > implies that simple reactions must be context-sensitive to different > > > combinations of events and they have to be sensitive to hidden parts > > > that need to be inferred and discovered in order to appreciate special > > > meanings (or to invoke special reactions) related to individuation of > > > the agents. So I can see one way how this extension of the definition > > > of stigmergy might be used to yield some novel experimental results. > > > If I only had the time... > > > > > > ------------------------------------------- > > AGI > > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > > RSS Feed: > https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-4a978ccc > > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/23050605-2da819ff> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-4a978ccc> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/23050605-2da819ff> | > Modify > <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> > Your Subscription <http://www.listbox.com> > ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
