Chad Hardin: February 2008 Archives
Lately I've been researching on how to utilize mobile object technology into an existing software system. Although it would be nice to sprinkle magic mobile object fairy dust onto a system and make it twice is good (somehow), that is not reality. Mobile objects are fascinating but they do not solve every problem, nor should one attempt to use them to do so. However, there are some areas where mobile agents really do show a heck of a lot of potential. The are that interests me is using them as agents; pieces of autonomous mobile code that performs tasks for you with as little intervention as possible.
For the research I spoke about I've been leaning towards augmenting the capabilities of an already existing and technologically successful system by opening the door for mobile agents to interact with said system on the behalf of individuals (groups of individuals may also be a possibility).
I won't go into details about the system but lets say that this system provides services that are accessible over the Internet. These services do neat things but have the limitation that they are only accessible when the user of these services has a connection to the Internet. Mobile agents can be used to provide a presence for the user that can make decisions on his behalf at any time.
Going down this road a little further, why limit the interaction of these agents to just this set of services? If these agents can interact with each other as well as the services then it may be possible for the agents to do more helpful and clever tasks for the user(s). Going to the extreme, what may end up happening after years of research is that we all eventually have agents that represent us and make decisions on our behalf. Considering that a major reason we use computers is to make our lives and work easier by off-loading mundane tasks it makes since that we should spend time figuring out what the next possibilities in this arena are. Agents are already here, just look at your email client's junk or spam filtering capability. The problem is that they don't exists outside of a particular program or computer, they cannot decide to travel somewhere else and represent you there. Nor can they travel to a "meeting place" and interact with other people's agents to perform a sort of commerce for the benefit of more than one party. That's the future folks.
For the research I spoke about I've been leaning towards augmenting the capabilities of an already existing and technologically successful system by opening the door for mobile agents to interact with said system on the behalf of individuals (groups of individuals may also be a possibility).
I won't go into details about the system but lets say that this system provides services that are accessible over the Internet. These services do neat things but have the limitation that they are only accessible when the user of these services has a connection to the Internet. Mobile agents can be used to provide a presence for the user that can make decisions on his behalf at any time.
Going down this road a little further, why limit the interaction of these agents to just this set of services? If these agents can interact with each other as well as the services then it may be possible for the agents to do more helpful and clever tasks for the user(s). Going to the extreme, what may end up happening after years of research is that we all eventually have agents that represent us and make decisions on our behalf. Considering that a major reason we use computers is to make our lives and work easier by off-loading mundane tasks it makes since that we should spend time figuring out what the next possibilities in this arena are. Agents are already here, just look at your email client's junk or spam filtering capability. The problem is that they don't exists outside of a particular program or computer, they cannot decide to travel somewhere else and represent you there. Nor can they travel to a "meeting place" and interact with other people's agents to perform a sort of commerce for the benefit of more than one party. That's the future folks.
