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<h1>Agent theory -- philosophy, formalisms, ...
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<p><li> 

Did you ever wonder what a <a
href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/MindDict/zombie.html">
zombie </a> running a <a
href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/MindDict/chineseroom.html">
chinese room </a> on <a
href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/MindDict/twinearth.html">
Twin-earth </a> would be like?  If you are a bit uncertain, you might
want to consult the <a
href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/MindDict/"> Dictionary of
Philosophy of Mind</a> which is being compiled by <a
href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~celiasmi/">Chris Eliasmith</a>
(Department of Philosophy of Washington University in St. Louis).  It
is intended "as a free resource to all those interested in the
philosophy of mind."  He is " especially interested in receiving
submissions to the dictionary so it will grow uncontrollably - and
become actually useful."  <i> 2/24/97</i>





<p><li> <a
href="http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/mitp/recent-books/comp/reason.html">Reasoning
About Knowledge</a>, by Ronald Fagin, Joseph Y. Halpern, Yoram Moses,
and Moshe Y. Vardi, MIT Press, 1995, ISBN 0-262-06162-7, 500 pp.,
$45.00 (cloth).  <i>7/29/96</i>

<p><li> Paper: <a
href="http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/misc/agent.architecture/agent.architecture.html">What
sort of architecture is required for a human-like agent?</a>, Aaron
Sloman, The University of Birmingham.  Invited talk at Cognitive
Modeling Workshop, AAAI96, Portland Oregon, Aug 1996.  Abstract: This
paper is about how to give human-like powers to complete agents. For
this the most important design choice concerns the overall
architecture. Questions regarding detailed mechanisms, forms of
representations, inference capabilities, knowledge etc. are best
addressed in the context of a global architecture in which different
design decisions need to be linked. Such a design would assemble
various kinds of functionality into a complete coherent working
system, in which there are many concurrent, partly independent, partly
mutually supportive, partly potentially incompatible processes,
addressing a multitude of issues on different time scales, including
asynchronous, concurrent, motive generators. Designing human like
agents is part of the more general problem of understanding design
space, niche space and their interrelations, for, in the abstract,
there is no one optimal design, as biological diversity on earth
shows.  <i> 7/7/96 </i>

<p><li> <a
href="http://www.wspc.co.uk/wspc/Books/compai_hilites.html#mbc">
Market-Based Control - A Paradigm for Distributed Resource
Allocation</a>, edited by S H Clearwater (Xerox PARC, USA).  World
Scientific, 1996.  Hardcover: 981-02-2254-8, price $62/#44.
"Market-Based Control is a paradigm for controlling complex systems
that would otherwise be very difficult to control, maintain, or
expand. The purpose of this volume is to illustrate the utility of
market-based control through a series of papers focusing on different
applications. This volume, for the first time, brings together the
research from a wide range of fields all using a market-based
conceptual framework. The features of markets that have provided
motivation for these works include decentralization, interacting
agents, and some notion of a resource that needs to be allocated. The
papers span a range including theoretical considerations, simulations,
and implementations."  <i> 6/15/95 </i>

<p><li> Paper: <a
href="http://www.cs.rulimburg.nl/~vreeswyk/opinmas.htm">Open Protocol
in Multi-agent Systems</a>, Gerard A. W. Vreeswijk, Limburg
University, Belgium.  Abstract: Protocols for intelligent agents are
difficult to write.  This is partially because intelligent agents
accommodate their interaction to the situation that arises.  As a
result, the interaction among intelligent agents cannot be governed by
a fixed protocol.  In this paper I describe an open protocol paradigm
for reasoning in a multi-agent system with decentralized control.  An
open protocol is a collection of rules of interaction that lies open
to further alteration and adjustment.  I explore the notion of open
protocol, and show how it can be altered by rational claims.  This may
lead to further insights concerning the government of interaction
among intelligent agents in multi-agent systems.  (<a href =
"ftp://ftp.cs.rulimburg.nl/pub/papers/vreeswyk/opinmas.ps.Z">compressed
postscript</a>) <i> 5/19/96</a>

<p><li> Paper: <a
href="http://www.cs.rulimburg.nl/~vreeswyk/abstracts/self-gov.htm">
Self-government in multi-agent systems: experiments and
thought-experiments</a>, Gerard A.W. Vreeswijk University of Limburg,
Belgium.  Abstract: This paper reports on research in self-modifying
protocol games. A self-modifying protocol is a set of instructions,
rules, or conventions, that can be changed by the systems that
communicate with the help of that protocol. The concept is expected to
be of great importance for the next generation of intelligent
distributed computer systems, such as DPSs, and MASs. This paper tries
to show by example that a self-modifying protocol leads to
self-governmental behaviour in intelligent distributed computer
systems. It further hints at the possible avenues future research
might take, and indicates how theoretical results can be obtained.
(<a
href="ftp://ftp.cs.rulimburg.nl/pub/papers/vreeswyk/self-gov.ps">Postscript</a>)
<i> 5/19/96</a>


<p><li> Book: Afsaneh Haddadi, <a
href="http://www.cs.umbc.edu/agents/papers/haddadi.shtml"> Communciation and
Cooperation in Agent Systems: A Pragmatic Theory</a>. Springer Verlag,
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, No. 1056 Year: 1996 ISBN
3-540-61044-8. <i> 5/14/96</i>

<li><p> Project: <a
href="http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/~pys/ModelAge/">ModelAge</a> is an
ESPRIT Basic Research Working Group focused on establishing a common
formal model of the concept of agent.  ModelAge is divided into
specialist groups: SG1: Defeasibility of agent facets, SG2: Logics and
models of action,SG3: Norm-governed interaction in organizations, SG4:
Software Development Process, and SG5: Diagnosis, Repair and
Industrial Control. <i> 5/9/96 </i>

<p><li> Book: Raimo Tuomela, <b><i> THE IMPORTANCE OF US: A
Philosophical Study of Basic Social Notions</i></b>. Stanford Series
in Philosophy, Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 94305,
U.S.A., 1995, 470 pp., ISBN 0-8047-2422-9, price USD 55.00.
(tuomela@cc.helsinki.fi, University of Helsinki).  The book develops a
detailed systematic philosophical theory of social action and group
phenomena, including analyses of central social notions such as
"we-attitudes" (especially "we-intention"), social norm, joint action,
and, most importantly, group goal, group belief as well as group
action.  CONTENTS: Introduction; 1.  Norms, Tasks, and We-Attitudes;
2.  Intentional Joint Action; 3.  We-Intentions and Their Cognates; 4.
Social Groups: A Conative Approach; 5.  Group Actions; 6.  Joint Goals
and Group Goals; 7.  Group Beliefs; 8.  Social Roles; 9.  The
Existence of Social Entities; 10. Towards a General Dynamic Theory of
Society.<i> 4/29/96 </i> 

<p><li> WOrkshop: <a
href="http://infolabwww.kub.nl:2080/infolab/lap96/"> The
Language/Action Perspective -- Int. Workshop on Communication
Modeling</a>, Tilburg, The Netherlands, JULY 1-2 1996, Sponsored by
EIT Tilburg.  This two-day workshop aims at bringing together
researchers from Business Administration, Linguistics and Computer
Science, as well as potential industrial partners and users, who are
interested in the theory of Communicative Action and the modeling of
Business Processes.  The Language/Action perspective (based on
Searle's Speech Act theory), introduced in the field of information
systems by Flores and Ludlow in the early 1980's, has proven to be a
new basic paradigm for Information Systems Design. In contrast to
traditional views of "data flow", the language/action perspective
emphasizes what people DO while communicating; how they create a
common reality by means of language and how communication brings about
a coordination of their activities.  <i> 4/27/96</i>


<li> <a href="http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/cogarch0/index.html">A Survey
of Cognitive and Agent Architectures</a> 


<li> <a href="http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/cog_affect/ijcai95.text">A
Philosophical Encounter</a>, Aaron Sloman,(The University of
Birmingham, A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk, http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs),
Proceedings 14th International Joint Conference on AI Montreal, August
1995. -- relates AI to some of the philosophical issues which underly
agents (e.g., ontologies, intentionality, etc.). <i>10/27/95</i>

<li> <a href="http://econ179.bpa.arizona.edu/JimHomePageFolder/EconFolder/GameTheoryResources.html"> Jim Ratliff's List of Game Theory Resources on the Net
</a><ul>

""Game theory" is sometimes described as multiperson decision theory
or the analysis of conflict.  Recurring themes include threatening and
bluffing, punishing and rewarding, building reputations, signaling
your unobservable "type," and sustaining cooperation in apparently
noncooperative environments through repeated interactions."
</ul>

<li> <a href="http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/9495reps/interface9495-shoham.html"> Agent-Oriented Programming </a> page at Stanford
-- Applying Software Agents to Software Communication, Integration,
and HCI. <i>9/8/95</i>


<li> <a
href="http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/9495reps/cogsci9495-perry.html">
Rational Agency: Information and Action </a> page at Stanford
CSLI.<i>9/8/95</i>

<li><a
href="http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/9495reps/cogsci9495-bratman.html">
Rational Agency: Planning and Intention </a> page at Stanford
CSLI.<i>9/7/95</i>


<li><a
href="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/consciousness-submit/consciousness-submit.html">Making
Robots Conscious of their Mental States</a>, John McCarthy, Stanford
University.  "In AI, consciousness of self consists in a program
having certain kinds of facts about its own mental processes and state
of mind.  We discuss what consciousness of its own mental structures a
robot will need in order to operate in the common sense world and
accomplish the tasks humans will give it. It's quite a lot. ..."
<i>9/7/95</i>

<li><a href="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/elephant.ps"> Elephant
2000 - 1992 </a>, John McCarthy, Stanford University. "This
unpublished draft is a proposal for a new programming language, but it
includes the mathematical theory of computation proposal for
distinguishing input-output and accomplishment specifications."
<i>9/7/95</i>


</ul>

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