Hello Pierre Sahores, Chipp Walters, and y'all who are interested in MetaCard-based AGENTS
>> w/out going too much into it, can you explain >> what an Intelligent Agent does in MC? Perhaps >> an example? I'm interested in learning more:-) When discussing software agents, as we are now, one has to almost immediately talk about agent *architectures*, because software agents, unlike their human counterparts in 'espionnage' circles, are especially interesting when they work together as coordinated teams. I will attempt, nonetheless, to define a single "agent". It's a software program that can autonomously accomplish the task it was crafted-or-evolved for. It automatically adapts to unexpected changes in its working environment (the Internet, an intranet, or a single desktop system). Because these changes are unexpected, a rigid algorithm does not make the grade. Unexpected situations & changes require an "intelligent" adaptation to maximize gains & minimize losses. And this is all happening dynamically, of course, which means that the agent has to be active and perpetually reviewing itself ( its programming and the agent's impacts on its environment, including other agents ). In sum, here are the capabilities an agent needs to be truly autonomous. The agent must : * be conscious of its environment ; * be aware of its self ; * be able to grow and prune its knowledge ; * be able to transform itself (adaptation) ; * be able to transform itself over time (evolution) ; * coordinate its activities with other agents ; * communicate fluently with human-user[s] ; * adapt to the human-users' preferences, habits, etc. Hummm ... Pretty good definition of a single agent after all, albeit I alluded to "other agents" several times in my above description. The main reason why having MORE THAN ONE AGENT working together is a **really** good idea is that human-level intelligence is [nearly] impossible to achieve as single programs. According to Marvin Minsky in the "Society of Mind", and other authors too, even *human* intelligence may in fact be a variety of different intelligences that work together synergetically to form 'The One' that we are aware of. The theoretical foundations of the above rest upon some very solid principles of hard as well as 'soft' science. Namely: the dynamics of open-ended systems that are far from equilibrium. To deal with a constant influx of new energy, these self-organizing systems evolve dissipative structures (order) that *reverse* the universal tendency towards entropy (disorder). The gist of it is that *order* emerges [by chance] from chaos. This spontaneous order feeds on itself to create ever higher forms of order. Collective properties emerge at a systemic level that are NOT sustained by any given component but is more like a regularity due to the high number of *interactions between* the components. As the old saying goes : "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts". On a practical basis, this means that we can create AI systems by creating societies of coordinated autonomous agents. Each singular agent can/should be a very simple program that accomplishes one very modest goal. Complex goals are accomplished by making the agents collaborate amongst themselves. Not a rigid architecture, where all the links are PRE-established, but rather a runtime env where the relationships among the agents are negotiated amongst themselves (and guided by the user, of course). IOW, a dynamic open-ended society of agents from which systemic properties will emerge from their interactions with themselves and their environment. If you're thinking that this is how *human* intelligence came about, in our own [social] evolution, then you are indeed an astute reader/thinker. Btw, YES, I am indeed saying that intelligence is a emergent systemic property AND, furthermore, I suspect that [our] intelligence is a *collective* property, e.g. shared by many 'components' at once (humans in this case) but not in any particular component of the system! R-a-d-i-c-a-l, eh! ;-) IOW : If it were not for y'all, I'd be pretty dumb! As would anyone else be in a singular world. We mutually define and expand each others' minds. It just occurred to me that this is a bit like the matrix. You have just been told that you do not have a singular intelligence, albeit you always thought you had, up til now that is! You have selected the blue pill instead of the red one. You cannot turn back, Alice. The matrix (society) *is* your mind. Well .. not "yours" actually .. everyones! Life is such a TRIP! :)) Alain __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html _______________________________________________ metacard mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard
