>> Could you tell me what A-Life is in a few words? > Mark: http://www.sportsurf.net/avatars/Index.htm > Enjoy, but it is sorta old. Alain: Yes, despite its age, this web-site is nonetheless relevant. I have dozens of bookmarks concernings autonomous-agents / A-life though that I can share with interested parties. > Mark: The author was a HC guy. Alain: small World, eh! > Mark: A-life = Artificial Life Alain: This is correct. > Mark: (sorta like A.I.) Alain: A-life is indeed a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), commonly referred to as Bottom-Up AI, because this school of thought (behaviorists and others) believe that intelligence is an emergent property of any self-regulating (eco-)system of behaviours. A well-known proponent of this is Marvin Minsky, in his seminal piece entitled "The Society of Mind". > Mark: Avatars is another way to cage in the concepts. Alain: Avatars are a representative instance of A-life, but there is much more to it than that. It is not even limited to computers or their software, although it will undoubtedly be in my/our case. Alain: Autonomous agents are the other major application of A-life principles. Software that can accomplish a complex task, without human intervention, by being self-aware and smart-enough to be genuinely autonomous. What is more is that the designer/user does not have to rigorously specify in advance every reaction to every thing that could happen in the real-world situation in order for the agent to successfully accomplish his task(s). Alain: In this paradigm, the user delegates tasks to his agents (and supervises them too if he wishes) instead of doing these delegated tasks himself. Alain: At the system level, we are talking about smart communicative components that collaborate together to achieve the larger systemic goals of the agent. Alain: In a nutshell, A-life is the inspired idea that the processes of life, evolution and intelligence will inevitably and spontaneously emerge in open systems that adapt to their environment. So we evolve our software instead of mentalistically trying to design it. How does that grab you? Alain Farmer mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
