Complex Intelligent Systems: Juxtaposition of Foundational Notions and a Research Agenda

The cardinality of the class, C, of complex intelligent systems, i.e., systems of intelligent systems and their resources, is steadily increasing. Such an increase, whether designed, sometimes changes significantly and fundamentally, the structure of C. Recently, the study of members of C and its structure comes under a variety of multidisciplinary headings the most prominent of which include General Systems Theory, Complexity Science, Artificial Life, and Cybernetics. Their common characteristic is the quest for a unified theory of a certain class of systems like a living system or an organisation. So far, the only candidate for a general theory of intelligent systems is Newell’s Soar. To my knowledge there is presently no candidate theory of C except Newell’s claimed extensibility of Soar. This paper juxtaposes the elements of Newell’s conceptual basis with those of an alternative conceptual framework based on the thesis that communication and * This is a revised version of a paper of the same title delivered at the 17 Annual Workshop of the European Society for the Study of Cognitive Systems, 26-29 August 2000, Wadham College, Oxford, England. ESSCS Abstracts p. 9.