The concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning—II☆

The concept of an agent has become important in both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mainstream computer science. Our aim in this paper is to point the reader at what we perceive to be the most important theoretical and practical issues associated with the design and construction of intelligent agents. For convenience, we divide these issues into three areas (though as the reader will see, the divisions are at times somewhat arbitrary). Agent theory is concerned with the question of what an agent is, and the use of mathematical formalisms for representing and reasoning about the properties of agents. Agent architectures can be thought of as software engineering models of agents;researchers in this area are primarily concerned with the problem of designing software or hardware systems that will satisfy the properties specified by agent theorists. Finally, agent languages are software systems for programming and experimenting with agents; these languages may embody principles proposed by theorists. The paper is not intended to serve as a tutorial introduction to all the issues mentioned; we hope instead simply to identify the most important issues, and point to work that elaborates on them. The article includes a short review of current and potential applications of agent technology.

/pdf/intelligent-agents-theory-and-practice-5dchj7p8pc.pdf

Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice

物件導向軟體之架構(Object-Oriented Software Construction)探討

The Globus system is intended to achieve a vertically integrated treatment of application, middleware, and net work. A low-level toolkit provides basic mechanisms such as communication, authentication, network information, and data access. These mechanisms are used to con struct various higher level metacomputing services, such as parallel programming tools and schedulers. The long- term goal is to build an adaptive wide area resource environment AWARE, an integrated set of higher level services that enable applications to adapt to heteroge neous and dynamically changing metacomputing environ ments. Preliminary versions of Globus components were deployed successfully as part of the I-WAY networking experiment.

/pdf/globus-a-metacomputing-infrastructure-toolkit-3qznymodbn.pdf

Globus: a Metacomputing Infrastructure Toolkit

The Generative Lexicon

Changed paradigms of human thought are needed to adapt modes of computer problem solving and truth to evolving computational technology.

/pdf/principles-of-problem-solving-26lawbhuf6.pdf

Principles of problem solving

Programming with Ada: an introduction by means of graduated examples

D. Goldin, Univ. of Massachusetts - Boston P. Wegner, Brown University Finite computing agents that interact with an environment are shown to be more expressive than Turing machines according to a notion of expressiveness that measures problem-solving ability and is specified by observation equivalence. Sequential interactive models of objects, agents, and embedded systems are shown to be more expressive than algorithms. Multi-agent (distributed) models of coordination, collaboration, and true concurrency are shown to be more expressive than sequential models. The technology shift from algorithms to interaction is expressed by a mathematical paradigm shift that extends inductive definition and reasoning methods for finite agents to coinductive methods of set theory and algebra. An introduction to models of interactive computing is followed by an account of mathematical models of sequential interaction in terms of coinductive methods of non-well-founded set theory, coalgebras, and bisimulation. Models of distributed information flow and multi-agent interaction are developed, and the Turing test is extended to interactive sequential and distributed models of computation. Specification of interactive systems is defined in terms of observable behavior, Godel incompleteness is shown for interaction machines, and explanatory power of physical theories is shown to correspond to expressiveness for models of computation. Our goal is to provide multiple perspective on interactive modeling from the viewpoint of interaction machines and mathematics, to persuade readers that interaction paradigms can play a significant role in narrowing the gap between theoretical models and software practice.

Peter Wegner

Papers

Principles of problem solving

Programming with Ada: an introduction by means of graduated examples

Mathematical Models of Interactive Computing

Tradeoffs between reasoning and modeling

A Logical Theory of Concurrent Objects and Its Realization in the Maude Language