| Foreword | p. xiii |
| Preface | p. xvii |
| Trademarks | p. xix |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Intelligent Agents--Some definitions | p. 2 |
| What This Book Is About | p. 6 |
| Section Summaries | p. 7 |
| Audience and Structure of This Book | p. 9 |
| From Artificial Intelligence Comes Intelligent Agents | p. 11 |
| Introduction | p. 11 |
| 40 Years of Classical AI | p. 12 |
| Hierarchy: Bridging the Gap between Natural and Artificial Computational Worlds | p. 17 |
| The Connectionist Revolution: Human Brain as Inspiration | p. 21 |
| Agents of the Mind | p. 23 |
| Agents of the Computer--AI Begets IAs | p. 26 |
| AI and Agents--the Specifics | p. 29 |
| Converging Technologies that Facilitate and Enable Agents | p. 37 |
| Introduction | p. 37 |
| Expert Systems and Knowledge Bases | p. 39 |
| Object Orientation--An Overview | p. 52 |
| OO concepts and terminology | p. 53 |
| OO analysis and design | p. 60 |
| OO agents | p. 71 |
| Relationships among agents | p. 81 |
| OO agent architecture benefits from uniformity of representation | p. 88 |
| Agent development by extension and refinement | p. 88 |
| Intelligent Agents via Soft Computing | p. 90 |
| Fuzzy systems and fuzzy logic | p. 91 |
| Evolutionary computing | p. 101 |
| Artificial neural networks--computers that learn while they compute | p. 000 |
| Agent-Enabling Infrastructures | p. 115 |
| Introduction | p. 115 |
| A word about interoperability "standards" | p. 119 |
| A word about client/server | p. 120 |
| Evaluating infrastructures for agents | p. 121 |
| OpenDoc | p. 125 |
| Object Linking and Embedding and ActiveX | p. 130 |
| OLE--an overview | p. 130 |
| Active X | p. 133 |
| Developing agents based on OLE and ActiveX | p. 135 |
| The Common Object Request Broker Architecture | p. 137 |
| Interoperability between ORBs and agents over the Internet | p. 141 |
| The Distributed Computing Environment | p. 143 |
| Other Infrastructures | p. 146 |
| Networked objects | p. 146 |
| Portable distributed objects | p. 147 |
| Publish/Subscribe and AppleEvents | p. 147 |
| Operating systems | p. 148 |
| A potpourri of agent environments | p. 149 |
| Agent Architectures | p. 151 |
| Introduction | p. 151 |
| Architecture and infrastructure--a fine line | p. 152 |
| What makes a good agent architecture? | p. 153 |
| Analyzing an agent architecture | p. 154 |
| Spectrum of Architectural Complexity | p. 155 |
| Simple, single agent equals simple architecture | p. 155 |
| A few simply interacting agents equal moderately complex architecture | p. 156 |
| Many complex agents plus complex interaction equals complex architecture | p. 156 |
| Reiken's M Architecture--A Complex Architecture of Integrated, Diversified Agents | p. 157 |
| Integrating diversified agents--the issues | p. 157 |
| Basic structure of integration | p. 157 |
| Application of M--the virtual meeting room | p. 160 |
| Genesereth's Architecture--Architectural Concepts Emphasizing Interoperability | p. 161 |
| The importance of a metaprotocol | p. 161 |
| Language issues | p. 163 |
| Communications issues | p. 164 |
| The agent communications language | p. 165 |
| An interoperability facilitator | p. 167 |
| Leveraging Existing Intelligence | p. 169 |
| Rosenschein's Approach: An Architecture for Agent Negotiations | p. 170 |
| Negotiation protocols--the issues | p. 171 |
| Negotiation protocols from game theory | p. 172 |
| Quest for an agent salutation protocol | p. 172 |
| Agent negotiations--considering the domain | p. 176 |
| Agent negotiation protocols--utility maximization | p. 179 |
| Kautz's Architectural Approach--Bottom-Up Prototyping and Interation | p. 179 |
| Kuo-Cho Lee's ITX Architecture for Agent Control | p. 181 |
| Edmond's Collaborating Agents--A Federation Architecture | p. 184 |
| Agent Architectures and Emergence | p. 187 |
| Sugawara's Architectural Concepts--Dealing with Change | p. 188 |
| Agent-Design Considerations | p. 193 |
| Introduction | p. 193 |
| Designing Agents--The Big Picture | p. 194 |
| Agent requirements analysis--general aspects | p. 194 |
| Agent requirements analysis--specific aspects | p. 195 |
| General design considerations | p. 196 |
| Agents, Platforms, and Environments: Where Agents Fit In | p. 200 |
| Execution environments | p. 200 |
| Distributed computing paradigms | p. 203 |
| Considerations for a common agent platform | p. 210 |
| Agents and Humans | p. 212 |
| Agents and humans working together | p. 212 |
| Anthropomorphic considerations | p. 215 |
| Considering the agent's audience--the user | p. 216 |
| Agent-user interaction--trust, competence, and learning | p. 217 |
| Helping humans work: designing work-flow agents | p. 220 |
| Incorporating Agent Capabilities in Shrink-Wrap Software | p. 220 |
| Topics on Intelligence | p. 221 |
| Simple agents versus intelligent agents | p. 221 |
| Designing in intelligence and autonomy | p. 222 |
| Agent Components | p. 228 |
| Classifying Agents Based on Degree of Mobility | p. 230 |
| Fixed or stationary agents | p. 231 |
| Mobile or itinerant agents | p. 232 |
| Authentication, Exceptions, and Security | p. 248 |
| Handling Exceptions | p. 249 |
| Security considerations--general | p. 250 |
| Security considerations--authentication and digital signatures | p. 251 |
| Agents Programmed or Configured by the End User | p. 251 |
| Agent Communications | p. 255 |
| Knowledge query and manipulation language | p. 255 |
| Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) | p. 255 |
| Agent communications example | p. 255 |
| Developing Intelligent Agents Now | p. 259 |
| Introduction | p. 259 |
| Building Simple Agents | p. 260 |
| Agents (almost) without programmers | p. 260 |
| Power-user environments for building agents | p. 261 |
| Serious Agent Tool Kits and Development Environments--Introduction | p. 265 |
| Smalltalk agents | p. 265 |
| Distributed Smalltalk | p. 274 |
| Java | p. 279 |
| Agent applictions in Java | p. 279 |
| Java as an OO language | p. 280 |
| Java tools | p. 281 |
| Applets and servelets as agents | p. 282 |
| Agile agents in Java | p. 283 |
| The Java agent template | p. 285 |
| Agent-support facilities in Java | p. 289 |
| Telescript: The Complete Mobile Agent Environment | p. 290 |
| Mobile agent technology | p. 290 |
| Programming mobile agents--the Telescript object model | p. 293 |
| Programming a place | p. 295 |
| Programming an agent | p. 299 |
| Using mobile agents--monitoring changing conditions | p. 302 |
| Using mobile agents--doing time-consuming legwork | p. 305 |
| Mobile agents--using services in combination | p. 307 |
| Telescript in the real world | p. 310 |
| Agent Development Environments and Security | p. 311 |
| Modern Object-Oriented Languages and the Agent Paradigm | p. 312 |
| The coming Java wave | p. 312 |
| Java, Telescript, and Smalltalk | p. 314 |
| Joining forces? | p. 314 |
| Summary | p. 315 |
| Agent Applications | p. 317 |
| Network Agents | p. 317 |
| LAN management agents | p. 318 |
| NetWare management agent | p. 318 |
| NetWare hub services agent | p. 318 |
| NetWare LANalyzer agent | p. 319 |
| Network software distribution agents | p. 319 |
| Automatic access and connection agents | p. 320 |
| Database Agents | p. 320 |
| Data integrity checking agent | p. 320 |
| Constraint agents | p. 320 |
| Database report-distribution agents | p. 320 |
| A distributed database backup agent | p. 321 |
| Communications Managemnet Agents | p. 321 |
| Search Agents | p. 322 |
| Avatars and Cyberspace | p. 322 |
| Assistants and Work-Flow-Automation Agents | p. 323 |
| Financial Agents | p. 324 |
| Filtering Agents | p. 324 |
| NewT--personalization of Usenet news | p. 325 |
| Agents as Researchers and Reporters | p. 325 |
| Telephony Agents | p. 326 |
| Commerce--Deal-Making Agents in a Worldwide Marketplace | p. 327 |
| Bits of commerce--agents finding products | p. 328 |
| Bits of commerce--agents finding people | p. 329 |
| Advertising agents | p. 330 |
| E-Mail Agents | p. 330 |
| Database Access via the Web | p. 331 |
| Agents in Industrial Automation and Control Domains | p. 331 |
| Governmental Agents | p. 332 |
| Medical Agents | p. 333 |
| Military Agents | p. 334 |
| Computer-Aided Design Helpers | p. 334 |
| JAT-Based Agents for Interactive, Collaborative, Concurrent Design and Engineering | p. 334 |
| Technical Assistance Agent | p. 336 |
| Decision Support Agents | p. 336 |
| "Bots" | p. 337 |
| Author's Assistant | p. 337 |
| Anthropomorphic Agents: Firefly | p. 338 |
| Big Brother Agents | p. 338 |
| Agents as Meeting Facilitators | p. 339 |
| Agent Futures | p. 341 |
| Introduction | p. 341 |
| The Future of Network Management | p. 343 |
| No Surfing | p. 344 |
| Commercial Agents | p. 344 |
| Net Searching and Information Mining | p. 346 |
| Agents to Infiltrate Applications | p. 346 |
| Military Agents | p. 347 |
| Database Agents | p. 347 |
| "Big supplier" Is Watching You | p. 347 |
| Trust | p. 348 |
| Information Agents and Cooperative Information Systems | p. 348 |
| Future Agent Builders | p. 349 |
| Social Issues Pertaining to Agent Technology | p. 350 |
| Replacing Humans with Software | p. 351 |
| The Global Desktop | p. 353 |
| Agents at Home | p. 353 |
| A day in the life of an agent-enhanced human | p. 354 |
| Agents: The Dark Side | p. 354 |
| Future agent security | p. 355 |
| Privacy | p. 355 |
| You are your agent(s) (at least in cyberspace) | p. 356 |
| Inventing the Future of Agents at MIT: Work at Software Agents Group, MIT Media Laboratory | p. 357 |
| Modeling intelligent autonomous agents | p. 357 |
| Computational model of emotion for autonomous agents | p. 358 |
| Software agents | p. 358 |
| Agents that reduce information overload | p. 358 |
| Amalthaea--a multi-agent system that discovers, monitors, and filters information resources | p. 359 |
| Yenta--matchmaking agents | p. 359 |
| Remembrance agents | p. 359 |
| Using simulated evolution to create adaptive systems | p. 360 |
| Anthropomorphizing software agents | p. 360 |
| Browsing large information spaces--emergent structure from collective action | p. 360 |
| Kasbah--an agent marketplace for buying and selling goods | p. 361 |
| ALIVE--artificial life interactive video environment | p. 361 |
| Modeling synthetic characters for games and interactive storytelling | p. 361 |
| Miscellaneous Agent-Related Projects | p. 362 |
| Intelligent browsing agents | p. 362 |
| Persona project | p. 362 |
| On-line cooperating agent architecture | p. 362 |
| Agents and ontologies | p. 362 |
| Agent architecture | p. 363 |
| Operating system support for agents | p. 363 |
| Internet search agent | p. 363 |
| ARPA Intelligent Integration of Information (I"3) project | p. 363 |
| Guardian: a prototype intelligent agent for monitoring intenstive-care and other medical patients | p. 363 |
| Intelligent, ethical agents | p. 364 |
| Mail agent | p. 364 |
| Knowledge-based agents | p. 364 |
| Agent collaboration languages | p. 364 |
| Sulla--a user agent for the web | p. 364 |
| The Future of AI equals The Future of IAs | p. 365 |
| Summary | p. 367 |
| Acronyms | p. 369 |
| Bibliography | p. 375 |
| Index | p. 381 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |