Taking (Computer) Architecture Seriously

Lessons Learned from Implemented Software Architectures for Physical Agents

Volume

Papers from the 1995 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

There seems to be little consensus on what an agent architecture is. In this paper I will talk about architectures in computer design, and programming languages, and what their distinctions are. I will then discuss agent architectures relative to that distinction. Finally, I will discuss recent work I have done on building better computer architectures for agency. One of the problems with writing about agent architectures is that I don’t have a good sense of what an agent architectures are supposed to be, much less how to evaluate them or what the right one is. In this position paper, I’ll compare agent architectures to computer architectures and programming languages, which I feel I understand somewhat better.