Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Tick up any modern operating systems textbook, and you will find sections on distributed processing - the sharing of computation among multiple physical proces sors. Familiarity with this literature brings the reader into contact with a jargon filled with the sorts of terms that computer science thrives on: load balancing, net work topology, routing strategics, circuit switching, col- lision detection, job migration, and the like. The dis cussion centers on how the bits of data that make up a computation can be physically moved among machines. If however, one picks up a book on distributed AI processing1, the papers are very different. Instead of solely seeing the technical jargon of computer science, the pages are full of terms borrowed from sociology: negotiation, interaction, contracts, agreement, organiza tion, cohesion, social order, and collaboration, to name but a few. This is not to say that serious AI scientists aren't concerned with the issues in the underlying com- putation, but rather that concentrating on the issues in volved in determining how a set of separate agents can give rise to global "intelligent" behavior forces the re searcher to go beyond consideration of the computation itself. It is clear that an understanding of how multiple agents can jointly achieve the solution of complex prob lems demands insights into the bases of communication and social organization. For example, consider a group of humans working together to build a house. Such an endeavour requires a number of instances of cooperation and organization, in particular, the communication of in formation between participants and the organization of the activity so that specialists in one area (electricians, carpenters, architects) can cooperate with those work- ing in another, all organized so as to achieve a shared goal. These same features emerge, however, as a swarm of bees work together to establish a hive. The similar- |
Year | Venue | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
1991 | IJCAI | social order,col,distributed processing,load balance,social organization,operating system,circuit switched |
Field | DocType | ISBN |
Computer science,Theoretical computer science,Artificial intelligence | Conference | 1-55860-160-0 |
Citations | PageRank | References |
2 | 0.49 | 6 |
Authors | ||
5 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Hendler | 1 | 5750 | 635.78 |
| Danny Bobrow | 2 | 2504 | 2108.08 |
| Les Gasser | 3 | 1601 | 261.00 |
| Carl Hewitt | 4 | 16 | 3.87 |
| Marvin Minsky | 5 | 407 | 263.42 |