The design of intelligent socio-technical systems
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The design of intelligent socio-technical systems Andrew J. I. Jones · Alexander Artikis · Jeremy Pitt
Published online: 9 January 2013 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract The design of intelligent socio-technical systems calls for careful examination of relevant social and organizational concepts. We present a method for supporting this design process, placing emphasis on different levels of formal characterization, with equal attention to both the analysis of concepts in a formal calculus independent of computational concerns, and the representation of concepts in a machine-processable form, fully cognizant of implementation issues—a step in the method we refer to as principled operationalization. There are many tools (i.e. formal languages) that can be used to support the design method; we define and discuss criteria for evaluating such tools. We believe that, were the method proposed to be adopted, it would enhance the state-of-the-art in the systematic design and engineering of socio-technical systems, respecting the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of those tasks, in both their theoretical and practical dimensions. Keywords Conceptual and computational models · Socio-technical systems · Multi-agent systems · Synthetic method
1 Introduction …there is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination. (Dennett 1995, p. 21)
A. J. I. Jones (B) Department of Informatics, King’s College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] A. Artikis National Centre for Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] J. Pitt Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]
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To a significant extent, research in Computer Science that aims to develop socio-technical systems has to address issues pertaining to the interpretation of social and organizational concepts. The components of socio-technical systems, be they artefacts or humans, carry out their work by interacting with each other against a social, organizational or legal background. The field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems has for some time represented an obvious example of this work, but the important part played by social concepts extends into other parts of Computer Science too. Consider—to mention just three further domains—Computer Security, where the notions of trust, reputation and role have figured prominently; Ecommerce, where the representation, formation and fulfillment of contracts is fundamental; and E-government, where representing and reasoning about policies and norms are essential. In Biology and Social Science, in Jurisprudence, and in Analytical Philosophy, among other disciplines, we find examples of conceptual models designed to enhance our understanding of the nature of organized interaction. In writing this paper, our initial question was this: in their construction of so-called co
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