Intelligent Agents

I'm going to digress for a moment and share a learning experience I had about twelve years ago. I had signed up for a non-credit course at Glendale Community College called the Electronic Forum (EF) that allowed its members to post entries on-line and participate with others in threaded discussions. At the time, I firmly believed that humans had evolved considerably over the last 10,000 years and that we are now much different (superior) to our ancestors. As a result of a lengthy electronic debate on the subject, I was finally convinced that humans haven't changed much at all during that time, but it is our knowledge base that has steadily evolved instead. As Isaac Newton noted: "If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."

I'm going to go long on generalizations here and short on specifics, but ever since humans have congregated into groups, the leader(s) of the groups have always sent out scouts to other areas to bring back information. If knowledge is power, then the gathering of knowledge is a key component to that power. A king might send his agents out, in his stead, to seek new ideas and ways of doing things and then report back to him. Many country's rise to power was accompanied by foreign explorations into the ever-expanding known world. Columbus was an agent of Spain when he "discovered" America in 1492 and his report to Queen Isabella insured many more return trips to the "New World" by many European countries.

The need and use of Intelligent Agents (IAs) has not changed in the last 10,000 years, but it is no longer the province of governments and kings. Today, (almost) anyone can use the Internet to tap into the current knowledge base of all human-kind and have at their finger-tips a veritable cornucopia of information ... so much so that it is no longer reasonably possible for a human to keep up with the data. In a sense, today's IA is needed more for filtering the information than for searching, organizing, and presenting it.

In my first post I noted that I am event-driven and like to have a goal in mind when learning something. This is why, in my last post, I noted that I have actively resisted using IAs of any sort. It's more of a philosophical view on learning than anything else: given a choice between learning a steady potpourri of information in the event I might need some of it and learning, in depth, specific information as needed to solve specific problems, I will choose the latter. I don't want something telling me what I might need to know ... I want to make the decision myself as to what that information needs to be. The downside, of course, is that I'm lost when I have no problems to solve, but that's what escapist novels are for ;)

My, but I do prattle on ... anyways, I will probably keep revisiting the idea that our society hasn't really changed much in the need for a given service, but that the technology to deliver that service has become faster, cheaper, and available to nearly everyone. IMHO, it is this common ubiquity that will have the greatest impact on society.