Adaptive Processes and Control

摘要

"... software technology has promulgated a series of failed promises.... In fact...software bugs are pervasive, and there are no robust platforms underneath." The fundamentals of our approach are that every action undertaken by an agent or a subagent is an act of control; and hence is contained in an adaptive loop. Here we present a number of Elementary Adaptive Modules (EAMs), treating them as the basic building blocks of adaptive agent systems, with a discussion of their use, their control, and their behaviors under different conditions; we will also discuss the host of problems that we expect to run into. We want to explore how to write software that can improve itself, and keep improving itself, far beyond mere simple programmed adaptation of pre-specified parameters. We want to test heuristically how to build and use hierarchical adaptive control structures in software. The basic elements are of course adaptive, and there are numerous expressions of those ideas. The essence of a purpose is choice and evaluation through some form of feedback; it is the marksman who has the purpose, not the trigger. A responsible agent is not to be designed and programmed in the usual way, for even if I think I know what I want now, I really want my agent to be what I am going to want it to be in the future, even as those wants change and evolve.