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Smart Agents Technology

Anyone impressed by the increasing speed and colossal memory capacity of computers will not be able to find in these or any other astonishing computer traits any manifestation of the slightest fragment of intelligence as long as computer programming remains purely algorithmic.

An algorithmic program is a deductive set of successive operations applied in a fixed order. An algorithm enables the computer to repeat long suites of logical operations tirelessly and accurately, as long as the algorithm is correct. An algorithmic program will neither know how to take any initiative nor stray from a fixed line of code. The programmer must dictate, or spell the precise succession of acts that the machine must accomplish.

The limit with algorithmic programming is best explained in an example. For instance, you cannot ask a financial expert to predict all of the events that may occur during a day, a month or a year. There are too many variables to code. Business problems requiring a minimum amount of reasoning cannot be transcribed into an algorithmic form. This is also true of programs based on Business Rules, Data Mining, Bayesian Networks, SVM, Neural Networks, object-oriented languages, etc. In the case of:

• Business Rules, you must predict these possibilities by writing all of the possible rules (obviously impossible).
• Data Mining, you must generate a decision tree that takes into account all possible cases (obviously impossible).
• Neural Networks, you need to have access and train your system with all the possible patterns (obviously impossible). Unsupervised neural networks (clustering) are inefficient and inadequate.
• Object-oriented languages, you must foresee, know and program all possible methods (obviously impossible).

The Example of Chess

What difference is there between a good game of electronic chess (programmed with all of the known algorithmic techniques like MinMax, aB, Scout, Mtd, Sss*, etc.) and an excellent player?

The computer works in "brute force", working at a prodigious speed to react to the present situation and the situations that might occur during the next five or six turns; after this line of horizon comes the invisible. Furthermore, the importance of a piece is simply determined by the affectation of a number!. For example, it will sacrifice a pawn to save a knight one time. The knight remaining has once again fooled the computer and distracted it by this defensive strategy. An algorithm is, in essence, incompatible with the notions of strategies and evolution.

An excellent chess player works by goals and sub-goals. He fixes on an objective strategy from the beginning. He progressively puts the conditions of the win in place of this objective in working out his strategy in goals and sub-goals. His moves are therefore at the service of his strategy and not in "brute" response to the situations he encounters.

LifeLike Intelligence

Brighterion's Smart Agents overcome the limits of the algorithms. The Smart Agents possess goals, behaviors and a representation of their environment. Each Smart Agent behaves according to its goals, observations, acquired knowledge and interactions with other Smart Agents. The solution arises from the interaction between the agents as they endeavor to reach their goal.