Fundamental Concepts of Intelligent Software Agents

It has not yet been possible to agree on a generally accepted, comprehensive, definition of an intelligent agent. This is evidence of the inter-disciplinary character of agents, which on the one hand are subject to the effects of different scientific research directions, and, on the other hand, reflect the requirements demanded in practical applications. If one approaches the area of agents primarily from the direction of the artificial intelligence, there are different criteria than those seen from the point of view of the information and communications systems. Similarly, the demands of a social scientist differ from those of the more technically oriented observations made by a computer scientist.