Object-based concurrent programming and distributed artificial intelligence

This paper presents some aspects of our studies of the conceptual and implementation relationships between Object-Based Concurrent Programming (OBCP) and Distributed Articial Intelligence (DAI). The basic argument of this paper is that to implement DAI systems we should nd complementary relations between the theory of social organization chosen for DAI problem-solving and the theory of modeling and implementation used for system construction. To clarify the nature of this relationship, we draw on a number of socially-motivated DAI experiments. The underlying social theories used in these experiments were derived from symbolic interactionism, while modeling and implementation theories had roots in OBCP. Starting from these experiments, we continue on to discuss the relevance of OBCP as a basis to construct DAI systems. We then discuss how to enhance OBCP to better provide multi-layered OBCP/DAI architectures. While this research is preliminary, we expect it to help clarifying the foundations and the design of future DAI platforms.

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