We summarise and compare features of MAS and BCT, and discuss how they could be fruitfully integrated in the engineering of intelligent systems by adopting a long-term research perspective.
Blockchain technology and logistics managementJayakumar PP
Basic understanding of Blockchain Technology. Give special focus to the application of blockchain in Logistics Management and Supply chain. It covers the following topics
Introduction to the blockchain, The current situation in the logistics industry, The Blockchain technology - the paradigm shifter in logistics, Block Chian Technology - Explain technology aspects and features, Basics on Blockchain security, Blockchain capabilities and its advantages to the logistics industry, Value-added to the industry, Implementation challenges, Finally with the conclusion and one best practice with ship chain company.
Thesis: to reconceive and more empoweringly enact relationships with authority, a new sensibility is required, that of the cryptocitizen. This is the skillset of determining oneself as an economic and political agent in the world of digital network technologies. In the cryptopolis smart city of the future, one goal could be enabling the flourishing of a multi-species society of machine, algorithm, and human.
How Blockchain could improve your supply chain?
- Deliver better customer experiences like GAFA
- Increase visibility and collaboration with your partners
- Manage IP and GDPR data
- Improve your forecast accuracy
Cell therapy use case
This White Paper propose a new way to think about the Smart City. Using blockchain technology and a cooperative governance a new data consumtion model more democratic and respectfull of privacy is now avialable.
The Future of Finance = Fintech, AI, Blockchain By Dinis GuardaDinis Guarda
If the 1st generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information and data. The 2d generation — now is powered by blockchain + AI technology — and is bringing us the Internet of value and identity.
We are now at a stage where digital platforms are the go to platform(s) reshaping the world of business, finance transforming 360 human affairs radically.
Finance is about managing financial assets. This now is all about technology and data but without forgetting the basics - clients / partners.
New technologies are rapidly reshaping the entire financial services spectre.
Fintech that’s no longer the headline, it’s now the industry reality.
Banks, insurers and asset managers are knee-deep in the potential of such technologies known as Fintech, data, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain.
These technologies are the main drivers helping transform the finance businesses and stay on top of ever-changing consumer expectations.
Blockchain technology and logistics managementJayakumar PP
Basic understanding of Blockchain Technology. Give special focus to the application of blockchain in Logistics Management and Supply chain. It covers the following topics
Introduction to the blockchain, The current situation in the logistics industry, The Blockchain technology - the paradigm shifter in logistics, Block Chian Technology - Explain technology aspects and features, Basics on Blockchain security, Blockchain capabilities and its advantages to the logistics industry, Value-added to the industry, Implementation challenges, Finally with the conclusion and one best practice with ship chain company.
Thesis: to reconceive and more empoweringly enact relationships with authority, a new sensibility is required, that of the cryptocitizen. This is the skillset of determining oneself as an economic and political agent in the world of digital network technologies. In the cryptopolis smart city of the future, one goal could be enabling the flourishing of a multi-species society of machine, algorithm, and human.
How Blockchain could improve your supply chain?
- Deliver better customer experiences like GAFA
- Increase visibility and collaboration with your partners
- Manage IP and GDPR data
- Improve your forecast accuracy
Cell therapy use case
This White Paper propose a new way to think about the Smart City. Using blockchain technology and a cooperative governance a new data consumtion model more democratic and respectfull of privacy is now avialable.
The Future of Finance = Fintech, AI, Blockchain By Dinis GuardaDinis Guarda
If the 1st generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information and data. The 2d generation — now is powered by blockchain + AI technology — and is bringing us the Internet of value and identity.
We are now at a stage where digital platforms are the go to platform(s) reshaping the world of business, finance transforming 360 human affairs radically.
Finance is about managing financial assets. This now is all about technology and data but without forgetting the basics - clients / partners.
New technologies are rapidly reshaping the entire financial services spectre.
Fintech that’s no longer the headline, it’s now the industry reality.
Banks, insurers and asset managers are knee-deep in the potential of such technologies known as Fintech, data, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain.
These technologies are the main drivers helping transform the finance businesses and stay on top of ever-changing consumer expectations.
Blockchain & Smart Contracts Basics and Perspectives for MASGiovanni Ciatto
Blockchain technology (BCT) enables a common, consistent view of some shared state among agents in distributed systems. Smart contracts (SC) are an emerging computational model allowing users to deploy arbitrary computations on a blockchain-based system. Whereas BCT and SC are currently exploited mostly for financial transactions, identity management, and asset property tracking, they have the potential to positively affect the development of many research and technology areas, such as knowledge-intensive, agent-based, intelligent, and pervasive systems.
In this tutorial we introduce the main notions behind BCT and SC, and try to foresee a number of possible research directions which are of potential interest for the WOA community.
From the Blockchain to Logic Programming and back: Research perspectivesGiovanni Ciatto
The blockchain is a novel approach to support distributed systems enabling a common, consistent view of a shared state among distributed nodes. There, smart contracts are computer programs that allow users to deploy arbitrary computations, in charge of automatically regulate state transitions and enforce properties. In this paper we speculate on how the blockchain and smart contracts could take advantage of a logic programming approach, and, complementarily, on how logic programming can benefit from the blockchain infrastructure. Accordingly, we discuss some possible research directions and open questions for future research.
A gentle introduction to the Blockchain and Smart ContractsGiovanni Ciatto
Abstract: The blockchain is a novel approach to distributed systems enabling a common, consistent view of some shared state among distributed agents.
Smart contracts are an emerging computational model — heavily influenced by the object oriented one — allowing users to deploy arbitrary computations on a blockchain-based system.
They aim at automatically regulating (financial) interactions among individuals or organisations.
It turns out that smart contracts are essentially a novel way to perform State Machine Replication, also considering the economical aspects of computations.
Despite the very interesting applications envisioned for smart contracts — mostly related to finance, identity management or asset tracking — they are far from perfection because some characteristic traits like, for instance, semantic subtleties within the imperative code, lack control flow encapsulation, source code immutability, and so on.
In this talk we gently introduce the blockchain research area with a top-down approach, starting from a general overview of the blockchain's main elements, and moving towards a comprehensive tour of their inter-dependencies.
Finally, we present a number of research directions which are of interest for our team, mainly aimed at evaluating the consequences of combining the blockchain techonology and the smart contract abstraction with other programming paradigms and computational models.
Eggsplore (http://www.eggsplore.eu) invited me to talk about blockchain and financial institutions. Instead of a reversed pitch and the inevitable death by powerpoint, I decided to slightly alter my approach.
Once upon a time... (in 2016 to be precise) Satoshi Nakamoto enters a Big Bank's innovation competition with this totally out of whack idea called "blockchain". She has to explain the idea to her colleagues and pitch it to her directors. I managed to get a hold of her slides and embedded these in this fairytale about distributed ledger technology and financial institutions.
It's a fairytale so please keep in mind: some things/examples might be true, other fictional.
Blockchain and smart contracts: infrastructure and platformsClaudio Di Ciccio
An introductory presentation on the main concepts of blockchain technologies, with a special focus on the smart contracts. The slides supported the talk held at the Cyber 4.0 Seminar on Cyber 4.0 Seminar on “Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Concepts and applications” on 2021-03-03, virtually hosted by the Sapienza University of Rome for the Cyber 4.0 Competence Centre.
Using Blockchain as a Platform for Smart Cities. Christian Nãsulea, Stelian-M...eraser Juan José Calderón
Using Blockchain as a Platform for Smart Cities
Christian Nãsulea, Stelian-Mihai Mic University of Bucharest, Romania.
ABSTRACT: Objectives: Incorporating new technologies into the development of smart cities means rethinking the way
different services are provided. From this perspective, Blockchain might represent the future of both smart cities and smart
communities as it offers new alteratives for individuals and institutions.
Prior Work: Blockchain was mainly perceived through its linkage with bitcoin, but recent developments have started
exploring the idea of using it for financial transactions, logistics and securing contracts. Tapscott & Tapscott (2016)have
acknowledged the potential the Blockchain Revolution had on redefining the idea of trust in both digital and local communities.
Blockchain technology has the ability to enhance transparency of local and regional institutions while also making it easier
to communicate sensitive data without compromising security and privacy.
Approach: We look at the different fields blockchain can have an impact on and we try to assess the viability of moving
towards an integrated platform for intermediating day-to-day activities between both institutions and individuals. We will
assess the advantages of digitizing and securing public and private data while also considering the potential risks this
process might involve.
Results: We aim to create a model of how blockchain might work in communities and assess its impact on the overall
economic and human development indicators.
Implications: Public administrators in many countries are starting to acknowledge blockchain’s potential in solving problems
for local communities our results will be a valuable starting point for developing local initiatives for using blockchain as a
platform for communications and transactions. Furthermore, a smart city must be a city where individuals can interact and
solve their issues quickly, using digital technologies for increased efficiency.
Value: Blockchain is thought to be the future of managing both public and private affairs. Countries such as Dubai, Singapore
and China are incorporating blockchain technology into developing smart cities. Blockchain makes us rethink many of the
different aspects of how communities can be organized, offering new alternatives and promising a more transparent and
efficient economic model.
Keywords: Digital Era, Economic Model, IoT, Technology
Blockchain distributed ledger technology is evolving from the hype phase into one of greater maturity and long-term value creation. This graduate course overview examines how blockchains, networks, and social interaction patterns are related.
Blockchain: The Game-changer To Radically Transform Your Business Emma Jhonson
Blockchain is the latest, most exciting technology to hit the world. But what does it do? Why should you care? And how can you use it in your business right now?
In this pdf, I'll break down blockchain and give you 5 ways to start using this game-changing technology in your company today.
Blockchain beyond fintech by ridgelift.ioUdayan Modhe
A comprehensive paper on blockchain technology. It covers blockchain technological aspects, blockchain evolution, future trends in blockchain implementation and reference architecture.
Decentralized brokered enabled ecosystem for data marketplace.pdfBokoloTonny
Presently data are indispensably important as cities consider data as a commodity which can be traded to earn revenues. In urban environment, data generated from internet of things devices, smart meters, smart sensors, etc. can provide a new source of income for citizens and enterprises who are data owners. These data can be traded as digital assets. To support such trading digital data marketplaces have emerged. Data marketplaces promote a data sharing economy which is crucial for provision of available data useful for cities which aims to develop data driven services. But currently existing data marketplaces are mostly inadequate due to several issues such as security, efficiency, and adherence to privacy regulations. Likewise, there is no consolidated understanding of how to achieve trust and fairness among data owners and data sellers when trading data. Therefore, this study presents the design of an ecosystem which comprises of a distributed ledger technology data marketplace enabled by message queueing telemetry transport (MQTT) to facilitate trust and fairness among data owners and data sellers. The designed ecosystem for data marketplaces is powered by IOTA technology and MQTT broker to support the trading of sdata sources by automating trade agreements, negotiations and payment settlement between data producers/sellers and data consumers/buyers. Overall, findings from this article discuss the issues associated in developing a decentralized data marketplace for smart cities suggesting recommendations to enhance the deployment of decentralized and distributed data marketplaces.
Injecting (Micro)Intelligence in the IoT: Logic-based Approaches for (M)MASAndrea Omicini
Pervasiveness of ICT resources along with the promise of ubiquitous intelligence is pushing hard both our demand and our fears of AI: demand mandates for the ability to inject (micro) intelligence ubiquitously, fears compel the behaviour of intelligent systems to be observable, explainable, and accountable.
Whereas the first wave of the new "AI Era" was mostly heralded by non-symbolic approaches, features like explainability are better provided by symbolic techniques.
In this talk we focus on logic-based approaches, and discuss their potential in pervasive scenarios like the IoT and open (M)MAS along with our latest results in the field.
Andrea Omicini, Roberta Calegari
Invited Talk
MMAS 2018, Stockholm, Sweden, 14 July 2018
The paper titled “A Self-organized Framework for Insurance Based on Internet of Things and Blockchain” has been accepted for oral presentation at and publication in the proceeding of the IEEE 6th International Conference on the Future Internet of Things and Cloud (FiCloud 2018) which will be held in Barcelona, Spain during 06-08 August 2018.
Authors: Monireh Vahdati, Kamran Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, Ali Mohammad Saghiri, Hassan Rashidi
From Blockchain to Brexit - edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 2018Martin Hamilton
In this talk for BETT 2018 I take a look at a few of the socio-technical trends that are set to have a big impact on universities and colleges in 2018 from blockchain to Brexit, and data vandalism to UK spaceports. I look at some approaches that institutions can take to help plan for an uncertain future, and consider how the community can mobilise to protect the progressive values that now often seem to be under threat.
I dispel some myths about distributed ledgers (aka "blockchains") in an institutional context. I explain why they are hard to implement and what they are good for, in the real world.
[Meetup 9] Nuit de la Blockchain #2, François Le Fevre du CEALéo Lemordant
Dans le cadre de la Nuit de la Blockchain #2 organisé par Enerfip et WeToken à Montpellier.
François Le Fevre du laboratoire LIST du CEA présente un cas d'usage dans l'efficacité énergétique, pour Véolia.
Explainable Pervasive Intelligence with Self-explaining AgentsAndrea Omicini
Pervasiveness of ICT resources along with the promise of ubiquitous intelligence is pushing hard both our demand and our fears of AI: demand mandates for the ability to inject intelligence ubiquitously; fears compel the behaviour of intelligent systems to be observable, explainable, and accountable. Whereas the first wave of the new "AI Era" was mostly heralded by sub-symbolic approaches, features like explainability are better provided by symbolic techniques. In particular, the notion of explanation should be regarded as a core notion for intelligent systems, rather than just an add-on to make them understandable to humans. Based on symbolic AI techniques to match intuitive and rational cognition, explanation should then be regarded as a fundamental tool for inter-agent communication among heterogeneous intelligent agents in open multi-agent systems. More generally, self-explaining agents should work as the basic components in the engineering of intelligent systems integrating both symbolic and sub-/non-symbolic AI techniques.
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Blockchain & Smart Contracts Basics and Perspectives for MASGiovanni Ciatto
Blockchain technology (BCT) enables a common, consistent view of some shared state among agents in distributed systems. Smart contracts (SC) are an emerging computational model allowing users to deploy arbitrary computations on a blockchain-based system. Whereas BCT and SC are currently exploited mostly for financial transactions, identity management, and asset property tracking, they have the potential to positively affect the development of many research and technology areas, such as knowledge-intensive, agent-based, intelligent, and pervasive systems.
In this tutorial we introduce the main notions behind BCT and SC, and try to foresee a number of possible research directions which are of potential interest for the WOA community.
From the Blockchain to Logic Programming and back: Research perspectivesGiovanni Ciatto
The blockchain is a novel approach to support distributed systems enabling a common, consistent view of a shared state among distributed nodes. There, smart contracts are computer programs that allow users to deploy arbitrary computations, in charge of automatically regulate state transitions and enforce properties. In this paper we speculate on how the blockchain and smart contracts could take advantage of a logic programming approach, and, complementarily, on how logic programming can benefit from the blockchain infrastructure. Accordingly, we discuss some possible research directions and open questions for future research.
A gentle introduction to the Blockchain and Smart ContractsGiovanni Ciatto
Abstract: The blockchain is a novel approach to distributed systems enabling a common, consistent view of some shared state among distributed agents.
Smart contracts are an emerging computational model — heavily influenced by the object oriented one — allowing users to deploy arbitrary computations on a blockchain-based system.
They aim at automatically regulating (financial) interactions among individuals or organisations.
It turns out that smart contracts are essentially a novel way to perform State Machine Replication, also considering the economical aspects of computations.
Despite the very interesting applications envisioned for smart contracts — mostly related to finance, identity management or asset tracking — they are far from perfection because some characteristic traits like, for instance, semantic subtleties within the imperative code, lack control flow encapsulation, source code immutability, and so on.
In this talk we gently introduce the blockchain research area with a top-down approach, starting from a general overview of the blockchain's main elements, and moving towards a comprehensive tour of their inter-dependencies.
Finally, we present a number of research directions which are of interest for our team, mainly aimed at evaluating the consequences of combining the blockchain techonology and the smart contract abstraction with other programming paradigms and computational models.
Eggsplore (http://www.eggsplore.eu) invited me to talk about blockchain and financial institutions. Instead of a reversed pitch and the inevitable death by powerpoint, I decided to slightly alter my approach.
Once upon a time... (in 2016 to be precise) Satoshi Nakamoto enters a Big Bank's innovation competition with this totally out of whack idea called "blockchain". She has to explain the idea to her colleagues and pitch it to her directors. I managed to get a hold of her slides and embedded these in this fairytale about distributed ledger technology and financial institutions.
It's a fairytale so please keep in mind: some things/examples might be true, other fictional.
Blockchain and smart contracts: infrastructure and platformsClaudio Di Ciccio
An introductory presentation on the main concepts of blockchain technologies, with a special focus on the smart contracts. The slides supported the talk held at the Cyber 4.0 Seminar on Cyber 4.0 Seminar on “Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Concepts and applications” on 2021-03-03, virtually hosted by the Sapienza University of Rome for the Cyber 4.0 Competence Centre.
Using Blockchain as a Platform for Smart Cities. Christian Nãsulea, Stelian-M...eraser Juan José Calderón
Using Blockchain as a Platform for Smart Cities
Christian Nãsulea, Stelian-Mihai Mic University of Bucharest, Romania.
ABSTRACT: Objectives: Incorporating new technologies into the development of smart cities means rethinking the way
different services are provided. From this perspective, Blockchain might represent the future of both smart cities and smart
communities as it offers new alteratives for individuals and institutions.
Prior Work: Blockchain was mainly perceived through its linkage with bitcoin, but recent developments have started
exploring the idea of using it for financial transactions, logistics and securing contracts. Tapscott & Tapscott (2016)have
acknowledged the potential the Blockchain Revolution had on redefining the idea of trust in both digital and local communities.
Blockchain technology has the ability to enhance transparency of local and regional institutions while also making it easier
to communicate sensitive data without compromising security and privacy.
Approach: We look at the different fields blockchain can have an impact on and we try to assess the viability of moving
towards an integrated platform for intermediating day-to-day activities between both institutions and individuals. We will
assess the advantages of digitizing and securing public and private data while also considering the potential risks this
process might involve.
Results: We aim to create a model of how blockchain might work in communities and assess its impact on the overall
economic and human development indicators.
Implications: Public administrators in many countries are starting to acknowledge blockchain’s potential in solving problems
for local communities our results will be a valuable starting point for developing local initiatives for using blockchain as a
platform for communications and transactions. Furthermore, a smart city must be a city where individuals can interact and
solve their issues quickly, using digital technologies for increased efficiency.
Value: Blockchain is thought to be the future of managing both public and private affairs. Countries such as Dubai, Singapore
and China are incorporating blockchain technology into developing smart cities. Blockchain makes us rethink many of the
different aspects of how communities can be organized, offering new alternatives and promising a more transparent and
efficient economic model.
Keywords: Digital Era, Economic Model, IoT, Technology
Blockchain distributed ledger technology is evolving from the hype phase into one of greater maturity and long-term value creation. This graduate course overview examines how blockchains, networks, and social interaction patterns are related.
Blockchain: The Game-changer To Radically Transform Your Business Emma Jhonson
Blockchain is the latest, most exciting technology to hit the world. But what does it do? Why should you care? And how can you use it in your business right now?
In this pdf, I'll break down blockchain and give you 5 ways to start using this game-changing technology in your company today.
Blockchain beyond fintech by ridgelift.ioUdayan Modhe
A comprehensive paper on blockchain technology. It covers blockchain technological aspects, blockchain evolution, future trends in blockchain implementation and reference architecture.
Decentralized brokered enabled ecosystem for data marketplace.pdfBokoloTonny
Presently data are indispensably important as cities consider data as a commodity which can be traded to earn revenues. In urban environment, data generated from internet of things devices, smart meters, smart sensors, etc. can provide a new source of income for citizens and enterprises who are data owners. These data can be traded as digital assets. To support such trading digital data marketplaces have emerged. Data marketplaces promote a data sharing economy which is crucial for provision of available data useful for cities which aims to develop data driven services. But currently existing data marketplaces are mostly inadequate due to several issues such as security, efficiency, and adherence to privacy regulations. Likewise, there is no consolidated understanding of how to achieve trust and fairness among data owners and data sellers when trading data. Therefore, this study presents the design of an ecosystem which comprises of a distributed ledger technology data marketplace enabled by message queueing telemetry transport (MQTT) to facilitate trust and fairness among data owners and data sellers. The designed ecosystem for data marketplaces is powered by IOTA technology and MQTT broker to support the trading of sdata sources by automating trade agreements, negotiations and payment settlement between data producers/sellers and data consumers/buyers. Overall, findings from this article discuss the issues associated in developing a decentralized data marketplace for smart cities suggesting recommendations to enhance the deployment of decentralized and distributed data marketplaces.
Injecting (Micro)Intelligence in the IoT: Logic-based Approaches for (M)MASAndrea Omicini
Pervasiveness of ICT resources along with the promise of ubiquitous intelligence is pushing hard both our demand and our fears of AI: demand mandates for the ability to inject (micro) intelligence ubiquitously, fears compel the behaviour of intelligent systems to be observable, explainable, and accountable.
Whereas the first wave of the new "AI Era" was mostly heralded by non-symbolic approaches, features like explainability are better provided by symbolic techniques.
In this talk we focus on logic-based approaches, and discuss their potential in pervasive scenarios like the IoT and open (M)MAS along with our latest results in the field.
Andrea Omicini, Roberta Calegari
Invited Talk
MMAS 2018, Stockholm, Sweden, 14 July 2018
The paper titled “A Self-organized Framework for Insurance Based on Internet of Things and Blockchain” has been accepted for oral presentation at and publication in the proceeding of the IEEE 6th International Conference on the Future Internet of Things and Cloud (FiCloud 2018) which will be held in Barcelona, Spain during 06-08 August 2018.
Authors: Monireh Vahdati, Kamran Gholizadeh HamlAbadi, Ali Mohammad Saghiri, Hassan Rashidi
From Blockchain to Brexit - edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 2018Martin Hamilton
In this talk for BETT 2018 I take a look at a few of the socio-technical trends that are set to have a big impact on universities and colleges in 2018 from blockchain to Brexit, and data vandalism to UK spaceports. I look at some approaches that institutions can take to help plan for an uncertain future, and consider how the community can mobilise to protect the progressive values that now often seem to be under threat.
I dispel some myths about distributed ledgers (aka "blockchains") in an institutional context. I explain why they are hard to implement and what they are good for, in the real world.
[Meetup 9] Nuit de la Blockchain #2, François Le Fevre du CEALéo Lemordant
Dans le cadre de la Nuit de la Blockchain #2 organisé par Enerfip et WeToken à Montpellier.
François Le Fevre du laboratoire LIST du CEA présente un cas d'usage dans l'efficacité énergétique, pour Véolia.
Explainable Pervasive Intelligence with Self-explaining AgentsAndrea Omicini
Pervasiveness of ICT resources along with the promise of ubiquitous intelligence is pushing hard both our demand and our fears of AI: demand mandates for the ability to inject intelligence ubiquitously; fears compel the behaviour of intelligent systems to be observable, explainable, and accountable. Whereas the first wave of the new "AI Era" was mostly heralded by sub-symbolic approaches, features like explainability are better provided by symbolic techniques. In particular, the notion of explanation should be regarded as a core notion for intelligent systems, rather than just an add-on to make them understandable to humans. Based on symbolic AI techniques to match intuitive and rational cognition, explanation should then be regarded as a fundamental tool for inter-agent communication among heterogeneous intelligent agents in open multi-agent systems. More generally, self-explaining agents should work as the basic components in the engineering of intelligent systems integrating both symbolic and sub-/non-symbolic AI techniques.
On the Integration of Symbolic and Sub-symbolic – Explaining by DesignAndrea Omicini
The more intelligent systems based on sub-symbolic techniques pervade our everyday lives, the less human can understand them. This is why symbolic approaches are getting more and more attention in the general effort to make AI interpretable, explainable, and trustable. Understanding the current state of the art of AI techniques integrating symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches is then of paramount importance, nowadays—in particular in the XAI perspective. In this talk we first provides an overview of the main symbolic/sub-symbolic integration techniques, focussing in particular on those targeting explainable AI systems. Then we expand the notion of “explainability by design” to the realm of multi-agent systems, where XAI techniques can play a key role in the engineering of intelligent systems.
Not just for humans: Explanation for agent-to-agent communicationAndrea Omicini
Once precisely defined so as to include just the explanation’s act, the notion of explanation should be regarded as a central notion in the engineering of intelligent system—not just as an add-on to make them understandable to humans. Based on symbolic AI techniques to match intuitive and rational cognition, explanation should be exploited as a fundamental tool for inter-agent communication among heterogeneous agents in open multi-agent systems. More generally, explanation-ready agents should work as the basic components in the engineering of intelligent systems integrating both symbolic and sub-/non-symbolic AI techniques.
Presented by Andrea Omicini @ AIxIA 2020 Discussion Paper Workshop
Complexity in computational systems: the coordination perspectiveAndrea Omicini
In this talk we discuss the role of coordination models and technologies in the engineering of complex computational systems.
Complex Systems Physics Meeting IMT-UNIBO
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna
Bologna, Italy, 15/02/2018
Nature-inspired Coordination: Current Status and Research TrendsAndrea Omicini
Tutorial @WI 2017, Leipzig, 23 August 2017
Andrea Omicini & Stefano Mariani, Lecturers
Originating from closed parallel systems, coordination models and technologies gained in expressive power so as to deal with complex distributed systems. In particular, nature-inspired models of coordination emerged in the last decade as the most effective approaches to tackle the complexity of pervasive, intelligent, and self-* systems.
In the first part of the tutorial we introduce the basic notions of coordination and coordination model, and relate them to the notions of interaction and complexity. Then, the most relevant nature-inspired coordination (NIC) models are discussed, along with their relationship with the many facets of tuple-based models. In the third part we discuss the main open issues and explore the trends for future development of NIC. Finally, as a case study, we focus on MoK (Molecules of Knowledge), a NIC model for knowledge self-organisation, where data and information autonomously aggregate and spread toward knowledge prosumers.
Novel Opportunities for Tuple-based Coordination: XPath, the Blockchain, and ...Andrea Omicini
The increasing maturity of some well-established technologies – such as XPath – along with the sharp rise of brand-new ones – i.e. the blockchain – presents new opportunities to researchers in the field of multi-agent coordination. In this talk we briefly discuss a few technologies which, once suitably interpreted and integrated, have the potential to impact the very roots of tuple-based coordination as it stems from the archetypal LINDA model.
Micro-intelligence for the IoT: Teaching the Old Logic Dog New Programming Tr...Andrea Omicini
New application scenarios for pervasive intelligent systems open novel perspectives for logic-based approaches, in particular when coupled with agent-based technologies and methods. In this explorative talk we provide some examples of how logic programming and its extensions can work as sources of micro-intelligence for the IoT, at both the individual and the collective level, along with an overall architectural view of IoT systems exploiting logic-based technologies.
Logic Programming as a Service (LPaaS): Intelligence for the IoTAndrea Omicini
Talk @ ICNSC 2017, Calabria, Italy, 16 May 2017
Abstract: The widespread diffusion of low-cost computing devices, such as Arduino boards and Raspberry Pi, along with improvements of Cloud computing platforms, are paving the way towards a whole new set of opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services. Varying degrees of intelligence are often required for supporting adaptation and self-management—yet, they should be provided in a light-weight, easy to use and customise, highly-interoperable way. Accordingly, in this paper we explore the idea of Logic Programming as a Service (LPaaS) as a novel and promising re-interpretation of distributed logic programming in the IoT era. After introducing the reference context and motivating scenarios of LPaaS as a key enabling technology for intelligent IoT, we define the LPaaS general system architecture. Then, we present a prototype implementation built on top of the tuProlog system, which provides the required interoperability and customisation. We showcase the LPaaS potential through a case study designed as a simplification of the motivating scenarios.
Privacy through Anonymisation in Large-scale Socio-technical Systems: The BIS...Andrea Omicini
Large-scale socio-technical systems (STS) inextricably inter-connect individual – e.g., the right to privacy –, social – e.g., the effectiveness of organisational processes –, and technology issues —e.g., the software engineering process. As a result, the design of the complex software infrastructure involves also non-technological aspects such as the legal ones—so that, e.g., law-abidingness can be ensured since the early stages of the software engineering process. By focussing on contact centres (CC) as relevant examples of knowledge-intensive STS, we elaborate on the articulate aspects of anonymisation: there, individual and organisational needs clash, so that only an accurate balancing between legal and technical aspects could possibly ensure the system efficiency while preserving the individual right to privacy. We discuss first the overall legal framework, then the general theme of anonymisation in CC. Finally we overview the technical process developed in the context of the BISON project.
Project presentation @ DMI, Università di Catania, Italy, 25 July 2016
The impact of mobile technologies on healthcare is particularly evident in the case of self-management of chronic diseases, where they can decrease spending and improve the patient quality of life. In this talk we propose the adoption of agent-based modelling and simulation techniques as built-in tools to dynamically monitor patient health state and provide feedbacks for self-management. To demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal we focus on Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus as our case study, and provide some preliminary simulation results.
Game Engines to Model MAS: A Research RoadmapAndrea Omicini
Game engines are gaining increasing popularity in various computational research areas, and in particular in the context of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)—for instance, to render augmented reality environments, improve immersive simulation infrastructures, and so on. Existing examples of successful integration between game engines and MAS still focus on specific technology-level goals, rather than on shaping a general-purpose game-based agent-oriented infrastructure. In this roadmap talk, we point out the conceptual issues to be faced to exploit game engines as agent-oriented infrastructures, and outline a possible research roadmap to follow, backed up by some early experiments involving the Unity3D engine.
Open distributed multi-agent systems featuring autonomous components demand coordination mechanisms for both functional and non-functional properties. Heterogeneity of requirements regarding interaction means and paradigms, stemming from the diverse nature of components, should not affect the effectiveness of coordination. Along this line, in this paper we share our pragmatical experience in the integration of objective and subjective, synchronous and asynchronous, reactive and pro-active coordination approaches within two widely-adopted agent-oriented technologies (JADE and Jason), enabling coordinating components to dynamically adapt their interaction means based on static preference or run-time contingencies.
Towards Logic Programming as a Service: Experiments in tuPrologAndrea Omicini
In this talk we explore the perspective of Logic Programming as a Service (LPaaS), with a broad notion of “service” going beyond the mere handling of the logic engine lifecycle, knowledge base management, reasoning queries execution, etc. In particular, we present tuProlog as-a-service, a Prolog engine based on the tuProlog core made available as an encapsulated service to effectively support the spreading of intelligence in pervasive systems—mainly, Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications scenarios. So, after recalling the main features of tuProlog technology, we discuss the design and implementation of tuProlog as-a-service, focussing in particular on the iOS platform because of the many supported smart devices (phones, watches, etc.), the URL-based communication support among apps, and the multi-language resulting scenarios.
The huge availability of geographical and spatial data, along with the impulse from ubiquitous and pervasive application scenarios, has pushed the boundaries of complex system engineering towards spatial computing. There, space (in any of the many possible acceptations of the term) represents at the same time the physical container of distributed pervasive applications, the source of a huge amount of data, information, and knowledge, and the target of both epistemic and practical actions.
Agents – as the basic abstraction for distributed computing –, rational agents – as the basic units for encapsulating intelligence –, and multi-agent systems (MAS) – as the social abstraction for collective behaviours – represent the most likely candidates for providing an original framework for spatial computing coherehtly covering conceptual, technical, and methodological issues.
In this survey tutorial we elaborate on the state-of-the art of spatial computing, and show how the classical ontological foundation for MAS (agents, societies, and environment) can coherently capture the essential aspects of spatial computing, also providing for original perspectives and research directions in the novel field of "Spatial MAS".
Introductory tutorial on the foundations of agents and multi-agent systems at the 18th European Agent Systems Summer School (EASSS 2016) – 25 July 2016, Catania, Italy
Academic Publishing in the Digital Era: A Couple of Issues (Open Access—Well,...Andrea Omicini
Open Access is the new frontier for academic publishing: however, some non-trivial issues are yet to be addressed.
Meeting “The (r)evolution of academic publication”
Istituti di Studi Avanzati (ISA), Università di Bologna, Italy, 10/05/2016
Self-organisation of Knowledge in Socio-technical Systems: A Coordination Per...Andrea Omicini
Some of the most peculiar traits of socio-technical systems (STS) in knowledge-intensive environments (KIE) – such as unpredictability of agents’ behaviour, ever-growing amount of information to manage, fast-paced production/consumption – tangle coordination of agents as well as coordination of information, by affecting, e.g., reachability by knowledge prosumers and manageability by the IT infrastructure. In this seminar we describe a novel approach to coordination of STS in KIE, grounded on the MoK (Molecules of Knowledge) model for knowledge self-organisation, and inspired to key concepts from the cognitive theory of BIC (behavioural implicit communication).
Anticipatory Coordination in Socio-technical Knowledge-intensive Environments...Andrea Omicini
ome of the most peculiar traits of socio-technical KIE (knowledge-intensive environments) -- such as unpredictability of agents' behaviour, ever-growing amount of information to manage, fast-paced production/consumption -- tangle coordination of information, by affecting, e.g., reachability by knowledge prosumers and manageability by the IT infrastructure.
Here, we propose a novel approach to coordination in KIE, by extending the MoK model for knowledge self-organisation with key concepts from the cognitive theory of BIC (behavioural implicit communication).
What is greenhouse gasses and how many gasses are there to affect the Earth.moosaasad1975
What are greenhouse gasses how they affect the earth and its environment what is the future of the environment and earth how the weather and the climate effects.
Slide 1: Title Slide
Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Slide 2: Introduction to Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Definition: Extrachromosomal inheritance refers to the transmission of genetic material that is not found within the nucleus.
Key Components: Involves genes located in mitochondria, chloroplasts, and plasmids.
Slide 3: Mitochondrial Inheritance
Mitochondria: Organelles responsible for energy production.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): Circular DNA molecule found in mitochondria.
Inheritance Pattern: Maternally inherited, meaning it is passed from mothers to all their offspring.
Diseases: Examples include Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and mitochondrial myopathy.
Slide 4: Chloroplast Inheritance
Chloroplasts: Organelles responsible for photosynthesis in plants.
Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA): Circular DNA molecule found in chloroplasts.
Inheritance Pattern: Often maternally inherited in most plants, but can vary in some species.
Examples: Variegation in plants, where leaf color patterns are determined by chloroplast DNA.
Slide 5: Plasmid Inheritance
Plasmids: Small, circular DNA molecules found in bacteria and some eukaryotes.
Features: Can carry antibiotic resistance genes and can be transferred between cells through processes like conjugation.
Significance: Important in biotechnology for gene cloning and genetic engineering.
Slide 6: Mechanisms of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Non-Mendelian Patterns: Do not follow Mendel’s laws of inheritance.
Cytoplasmic Segregation: During cell division, organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts are randomly distributed to daughter cells.
Heteroplasmy: Presence of more than one type of organellar genome within a cell, leading to variation in expression.
Slide 7: Examples of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Four O’clock Plant (Mirabilis jalapa): Shows variegated leaves due to different cpDNA in leaf cells.
Petite Mutants in Yeast: Result from mutations in mitochondrial DNA affecting respiration.
Slide 8: Importance of Extrachromosomal Inheritance
Evolution: Provides insight into the evolution of eukaryotic cells.
Medicine: Understanding mitochondrial inheritance helps in diagnosing and treating mitochondrial diseases.
Agriculture: Chloroplast inheritance can be used in plant breeding and genetic modification.
Slide 9: Recent Research and Advances
Gene Editing: Techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 are being used to edit mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA.
Therapies: Development of mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) for preventing mitochondrial diseases.
Slide 10: Conclusion
Summary: Extrachromosomal inheritance involves the transmission of genetic material outside the nucleus and plays a crucial role in genetics, medicine, and biotechnology.
Future Directions: Continued research and technological advancements hold promise for new treatments and applications.
Slide 11: Questions and Discussion
Invite Audience: Open the floor for any questions or further discussion on the topic.
Richard's aventures in two entangled wonderlandsRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Richard's entangled aventures in wonderlandRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
Comparing Evolved Extractive Text Summary Scores of Bidirectional Encoder Rep...University of Maribor
Slides from:
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Track: Artificial Intelligence
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
This pdf is about the Schizophrenia.
For more details visit on YouTube; @SELF-EXPLANATORY;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiarMZDNhe1A3Rnpr_WkzA/videos
Thanks...!
Nutraceutical market, scope and growth: Herbal drug technologyLokesh Patil
As consumer awareness of health and wellness rises, the nutraceutical market—which includes goods like functional meals, drinks, and dietary supplements that provide health advantages beyond basic nutrition—is growing significantly. As healthcare expenses rise, the population ages, and people want natural and preventative health solutions more and more, this industry is increasing quickly. Further driving market expansion are product formulation innovations and the use of cutting-edge technology for customized nutrition. With its worldwide reach, the nutraceutical industry is expected to keep growing and provide significant chances for research and investment in a number of categories, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and herbal supplements.
Professional air quality monitoring systems provide immediate, on-site data for analysis, compliance, and decision-making.
Monitor common gases, weather parameters, particulates.
Lateral Ventricles.pdf very easy good diagrams comprehensive
Blockchain for Intelligent Systems: Research Perspectives
1. Blockchain for Intelligent Systems
Research Perspectives
Andrea Omicini
andrea.omicini@unibo.it
Giovanni Ciatto
giovanni.ciatto@unibo.it
Keynote @ BCT4MAS 2018
Santiago, Cile – 3 December 2018
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 1 / 56
2. Outline
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
2 Take the Long Way Home
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3. MAS vs. BCT: The Match
Next in Line. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
2 Take the Long Way Home
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 3 / 56
4. MAS vs. BCT: The Match
Old News vs. New News
Blockchain Technologies (BCT)
BCT as the new kid on the block
everybody is doing BCT nowadays
even myself.
Multi-agent systems (MAS)
MAS as the perennial man-child
everybody (was and) is (still) doing MAS, too
yet, no longer as cool as it was, and already a bit awkward
exception made for myself :)
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 4 / 56
5. MAS vs. BCT: The Match
Is it Just BCT4MAS?
Do BCT and MAS match somehow?
is it a marriage made in (computational) heaven?
is it an arranged marriage for the sake of children (papers)?
do they love each other, actually?
What about MAS4BCT?
benefits from the marriage are easy to see
some of them mutual
possibly not all of them so obvious
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 5 / 56
6. MAS vs. BCT: The Match
Why Intelligent Systems?
MAS for intelligent system engineering
abstractions for distributed systems
agent abstraction for integration of different AI techniques
agent cognition & logics
agent society for social intelligence
MAS environment for situatedness
BCT against shortcomings of intelligent systems
accountability
trust & reputation
privacy & security
. . .
see e.g. [Calvaresi et al., 2018]
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 6 / 56
7. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 7 / 56
8. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Distributed Systems (DS)
BCT for distributed systems
BCT is a technology for DS
providing fundamental mechanisms for DS through a distributed
middleware
and features for DS such as transparency
MAS for distributed systems
agent-oriented computing is a paradigm for DS
provide fundamental abstractions for DS through agent middleware
and features for DS such as transparency
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 8 / 56
9. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Autonomy & Decentralisation
Autonomy & decentralisation in BCT
BCT is a decentralised infrastructure
nodes are supposed to behave autonomously in a BCT
their inner computation is required to be neither predictable nor
observable
Autonomy & decentralisation in MAS
MAS are essentially decentralised in control
agents are assumed to behave autonomously in a MAS
their inner computation is required to be neither predictable nor
observable
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 9 / 56
10. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Interaction
Interaction in BCT
interaction among distributed autonomous nodes is the key to BCT
behaviour
around simple notions such as value exchange or more complex
abstractions such as smart contracts (SC)
Interaction in MAS
interaction among distributed autonomous agents is the key to MAS
behaviour
around simple notions such as message exchange or more complex
abstractions such as agent coordination
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 10 / 56
11. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Openness
Openness in BCT
no a priori assumption on the number of nodes—or components, in
general
Openness in MAS
no a priori assumption on the number of agents—or components, in
general
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 11 / 56
12. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Match
Environment
Environment in BCT
unpredictability and uncertainty are dealt with based on consensus
to build a common view of the environment
Environment in MAS
intelligent agents are assumed to work within a dynamic and
unpredictable environment
based on their autonomy and reactiveness
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 12 / 56
13. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 13 / 56
14. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
How MAS & BCT Complement Each Other?
Which are the features for intelligent systems. . .
missing from BCT, that MAS could provide or?
missing from MAS, that BCT could provide or?
The goal here. . .
is then to put everything together
possibly preserving all the combined benefits
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 14 / 56
15. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Technology vs. Model I
BCT technologies
+ BCT is a young yet (relatively) well-known technology
+ already tested in critical domains
– we cannot really talk of BCT models, for now
– no formal models, yet
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 15 / 56
16. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Technology vs. Model II
MAS models
+ after years of research, the essence of agent-oriented architecture is
well-understood
+ captured by models, meta-models, architecture for MAS
+ formal models
+ framing and integrating AI results
– with some exceptions, agent technologies are somehow older than
solid, yet
– and tested in few domains
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 16 / 56
17. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Technology vs. Model III
Engineering intelligent systems
MAS-based (formal) models and methodologies
BC-based technology and middleware
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 17 / 56
18. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Useful Features for Intelligent Systems I
BCT features
trust & reputation
privacy & security
distributed consensus
accountability
. . .
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 18 / 56
19. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Useful Features for Intelligent Systems II
MAS features
computational autonomy
goal-oriented behaviour
cognitive process
coordination as govern of interaction
knowledge representation & management, logics, planning, machine
learning, reasoning, . . .
social & situated intelligence
. . .
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 19 / 56
20. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Glocal Knowledge
BCT global
consensus on distributed ledger provide all nodes with global, shared
view of the world
MAS local
situated agents have each its own fragmented, local knowledge of the
world
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 20 / 56
21. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Embodied vs. Disembodied
MAS embodied computation
situated agents and MAS promote situated (embodied) computations
BCT disembodied computation
BCT distributed, replicated computations can occur anywhere, and
proceed as disembodied computations
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 21 / 56
22. MAS vs. BCT: The Match Shake & Bake
Resources
MAS resources
environment, objects, artefacts, . . .
subject to and means for agent actions
REST and the like
resource as the general notion for acting on MAS environment and
mediating agent-environment interaction
BCT resources
BCT value exchange
PoW
Ethereum’s gas as cost of computation
resource as an economic value for systems
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 22 / 56
23. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Misses
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 23 / 56
24. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Misses
Fragmented Technologies
Technologies for intelligent systems
Real-world intelligent systems mandate for a clear and mature
technological framework
BCT techs are tested yet immature and fragmented
MAS techs are hugely fragmented even though often interoperable at
some level
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 24 / 56
25. MAS vs. BCT: The Match The Misses
Weak Standards
Standards for intelligent systems
Integration of intelligent systems in human processes and activities calls
for standards
MAS standards are in place yet not covering the full ground
BCT standards are just non-existing
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 25 / 56
26. Take the Long Way Home
Next in Line. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
2 Take the Long Way Home
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 26 / 56
27. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 27 / 56
28. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
Why LP for Intelligent Systems?
Logic programming (LP)
Programming as goal-oriented reasoning, on top of declarative language
sound and complete logic inference
over knowledge represented as first-order logic theories
supports meta-programming
provides understandable outputs (proofs)
already largely adopted in MAS
in cognitive agents, e.g. AgentSpeak [Rao, 1996]
in agent coordination, e.g. ReSpecT [Omicini and Denti, 2001]
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 28 / 56
29. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
Agents & Knowledge
Omniscience
in the same way as as distributed algorithms, agents perform better
with complete knowledge
since MAS are dwelling mostly in uncertain distributed domains such
as the IoT, however, the very notion of agent omniscience have been
mostly banned from MAS research in the last decade at least
yet, there are distributed domains where supporting agent deliberation
with all available knowledge would greatly help
e.g., health care
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 29 / 56
30. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
BCT as a Logic Theory I
Making all knowledge available to every agent
BCT provide agent nodes with a distributed shared data space
? what if data were logic formulae?
! the whole BCT would then represent a logic theory
shared by all agent nodes
→ every agent node would have its own complete logic theory locally
available, consistently replicated
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 30 / 56
31. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
BCT as a Logic Theory II
Updating the distributed logic theory
BCT provide consistent read/write access to the distributed ledger
? if the whole BCT represents a logic theory, how would it evolve?
! agent nodes could issue assert / retract operations
suitable handled by a properly-defined smart contracts
so the the replicated logic theory is updated by any node in a
consistent way
→ the evolution of the shared logic theory is overall consistent
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 31 / 56
32. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based Ledger
BCT as a Logic Theory III
Using the distributed logic theory
Clients may issue goals to be proven on the BCT logic theory
miners may cooperatively participate to the resolution process
providing either partial or complete results
possibly publishing partial results on the BCT
economical incentives for a fair balancing of computational efforts
e.g., discouraging already-proven goals to be proven again
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 32 / 56
33. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based SC
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 33 / 56
34. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based SC
Programming Languages for Smart Contracts (SC)
the language used to write SC affects the potential features of
SC—e.g, [Idelberger et al., 2016]
the language for programming SC is a typical line of research—e.g.,
[Seijas et al., 2017]
issues range from underlying mechanisms to high-level language
abstractions—including the programming paradigm, obviously
Language issues for SC
SC currently lack
high-level understandability of what a SC does and accomplishes
observability of the deployed source code
some degree of evolvability enabling them to be modified (or fixed)
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 34 / 56
35. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based SC
Logic-based Smart Contracts I
Potential benefits
Exploiting a logic language such as Prolog for SC brings some
benefits—see, e.g., [Idelberger et al., 2016]
SC language becomes declarative and goal-oriented, improving
understandability—thus, explainability
built out of a declarative interpreted language, SC are inspectable
without disassemblers
separating static KB (for the immutable code) and dynamic KB (for
the mutable part) enables some sort of controlled evolvability via
assert and retract (on the mutable KB)
context-aware predicates for inspecting the current context
similarly to Solidity’s Globally Available Variables
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 35 / 56
36. Take the Long Way Home Logic-based SC
Logic-based Smart Contracts II
Further issues
should the computational economic cost model be re-designed to
embrace logic programming basic mechanisms?
given the interactive nature of LP, how should logic SC interact?
LP formal semantics for BCT formal semantics?
is it technically feasible?
e.g., with existing languages such as tuProlog [Denti et al., 2005] on top
of some existing BCT
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 36 / 56
37. Take the Long Way Home SC as Coordination Abstractions
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 37 / 56
38. Take the Long Way Home SC as Coordination Abstractions
Blackboard-based Approaches & Smart Contracts
Opportunity
Shared blackboard architectures may take advantage of the replication and
fault-tolerance features they would inherit if deployed on top of a BCT
layer. For instance
e.g. distributed logic programming—e.g., [Ciancarini, 1994, Calegari et al., 2018]
e.g. tuple-based coordination [Rossi et al., 2001]
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 38 / 56
39. Take the Long Way Home SC as Coordination Abstractions
SC for Coordination & Social Intelligence I
MAS coordination & BCT
generally speaking, SC are computational abstractions ruling the
interaction of nodes in BCT
analogously, coordination media [Ciancarini, 1996] are computational
abstractions ruling the interaction of nodes in BCT
→ SC are amenable of a re-interpretation as coordination abstractions
for BCT nodes
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 39 / 56
40. Take the Long Way Home SC as Coordination Abstractions
SC for Coordination & Social Intelligence II
Social Intelligence based on SC
as coordination abstractions, SC can be exploited as the core of social
intelligence [Omicini and Papadopoulos, 2001] for BCT-based MAS
as inspectable and malleable coordination artefacts [Omicini et al., 2006],
SC can in principle provide a sound foundation for adaptive,
self-organising BCT-based MAS [Omicini and Viroli, 2011]
Omicini with Ciatto (BCT4MAS 2018) Blockchain for Intelligent Systems Santiago, Cile, 3/12/2018 40 / 56
41. Take the Long Way Home SC as Coordination Abstractions
Tuple-based Coordination upon the Blockchain
Can we build the archetypal Linda model [Gelernter, 1985] on top of BCTs?
if yes, tuple spaces would inherit
a lot of desirable properties
e.g., decentralisation & replication,
fault-tolerance, consistency, etc.
? which model for economical cost
model for Linda primitives?
? how to handle control
flow-related aspects?
e.g., suspensive semantics
? can we inject programmability
[Denti et al., 1997], too?
Networked hosts
The Blockchain
Communication
& Coordination
services
Application
specific
services
Workflow
management
Service
orchestration
Dependencies
resolution
Data
pipelines
Internet of Things
Business Intelligence Web Services
Vision: BCT as the backbone on top of
which communication and coordination
services are built
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42. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
Focus on. . .
1 MAS vs. BCT: The Match
The Match
Shake & Bake
The Misses
2 Take the Long Way Home
Logic-based Ledger
Logic-based SC
SC as Coordination Abstractions
Autonomous SC
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43. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
Languages Mechanisms for Smart Contracts
some language issues are related to their underlying operational
mechanisms
for instance
synchronous calls are usually hard coded by construction
poor care for what concerns inter-SC interaction
lack of control flow encapsulation
lack of proactiveness
Basic idea
investigating the adoption of interaction-friendly paradigms such as
actors or agents
where some (all) of the above limitations are overcome at the
fundamental programming abstraction level
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44. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
Smart Contracts & MAS I
MAS provide a rich (yet coherent) set of abstractions—richer than
actors
“weak” agent notion, basically exploiting agent computational
autonomy [Omicini et al., 2008]—e.g., Jade [Bellifemine et al., 2007]
“strong” agent notion, exploiting mentalistic notion for
cognition—e.g., BDI agents [Bordini et al., 2007, Rao and Georgeff, 1995]
rich MAS meta-models—e.g., Agents & Artifacts (A&A) meta-model
[Omicini et al., 2008]
basic MAS notions
agent
environment
society
mapped upon BCT & SC
many diverse mappings are possible
beyond the straightforward agent/node, artefact/SC mappings
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45. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
Smart Contracts & MAS II
The issue of autonomy
since they are implemented as threads, SC are said to be autonomous
full computational autonomy requires proactiveness—as in MAS
agents
SC are just reactive, they do not really encapsulate control [Odell, 2002]
so, SC are not really autonomous, they are not agents
? should they be?
? for what?
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46. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
SC as Intelligent Agents I
SC reasoning
SC rule interaction in an automated way
however, not every interaction can be governed in an automated way
sometimes, it might be preferable to express the rules in terms of
goals to be achieved
sometimes, the the most effective enactment of the rules may depend
on the environment
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47. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
SC as Intelligent Agents II
SC as intelligent agents
Enhancing SC with
computational autonomy—so SC can act proactively
goal-oriented computations—so interaction rules can be implemented
more flexibly
up-to-date knowledge about the world—using both BCT ledger and
(possibly) run.time oracles to rule interaction based on real-time
knowledge about the environment
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48. Take the Long Way Home Autonomous SC
SC as Intelligent Agents III
SC as intelligent agents: issues
what is the environment, here?
what can a SC-agent perceive?
how can goal-oriented reasoning be useful here?
should a SC reason about how its business logic?
what about epistemic actions?
should a SC ask for information to other (human) agents?
would multiple intentions – i.e., multiple control flows – make sense
for an SC-agent?
in case, who is paying for them?
who is in charge for executing them?
and, using which concurrency model?
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49. Conclusion
Run, Boy, Run
everybody (was and) is (still) doing MAS
everybody is doing BCT nowadays
more than everything else, everybody is doing AI nowadays
so, if you are doing both MAS and BCT, you have to rush towards
intelligent systems
before everyone else does that!
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50. References
References I
Bellifemine, F. L., Caire, G., and Greenwood, D. (2007).
Developing Multi-Agent Systems with JADE.
Wiley.
Bordini, R. H., H¨ubner, J. F., and Wooldridge, M. J. (2007).
Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak using Jason.
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hardcover.
Calegari, R., Denti, E., Mariani, S., and Omicini, A. (2018).
Logic programming as a service.
Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, In press.
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51. References
References II
Calvaresi, D., Dubovitskaya, A., Calbimonte, J. P., Taveter, K., and Schumacher, M.
(2018).
Multi-agent systems and blockchain: Results from a systematic literature review.
In Bajo, J., Corchado, J. M., Navarro Mart´ınez, E. M., Osaba Icedo, E., Mathieu, P.,
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Silveira, R. A., Fern´andez, A., Unland, R., and Fuentes-Fern´andez, R., editors, Advances in
Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Complexity: The PAAMS
Collection 16th International Conference, PAAMS 2018, Toledo, Spain, June 20–22, 2018,
Proceedings, volume 887 of Communications in Computer and Information Science, pages
110–126. Springer International Publishing.
Ciancarini, P. (1994).
Distributed programming with logic tuple spaces.
New Generation Computing, 12(3):251–283.
Ciancarini, P. (1996).
Coordination models and languages as software integrators.
ACM Computing Surveys, 28(2):300–302.
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52. References
References III
Denti, E., Natali, A., and Omicini, A. (1997).
Programmable coordination media.
In Garlan, D. and Le M´etayer, D., editors, Coordination Languages and Models, volume
1282 of LNCS, pages 274–288. Springer-Verlag.
2nd International Conference (COORDINATION’97), Berlin, Germany,
1–3 September 1997. Proceedings.
Denti, E., Omicini, A., and Ricci, A. (2005).
Multi-paradigm Java-Prolog integration in tuProlog.
Science of Computer Programming, 57(2):217–250.
Gelernter, D. (1985).
Generative communication in Linda.
ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 7(1):80–112.
Idelberger, F., Governatori, G., Riveret, R., and Sartor, G. (2016).
Evaluation of logic-based smart contracts for blockchain systems.
In Alferes, J. J., Bertossi, L., Governatori, G., Fodor, P., and Roman, D., editors, Rule
Technologies. Research, Tools, and Applications, volume 9718 of Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, pages 167–183. Springer.
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53. References
References IV
Odell, J. (2002).
Objects and agents compared.
Journal of Object Technologies, 1(1):41–53.
Omicini, A. and Denti, E. (2001).
From tuple spaces to tuple centres.
Science of Computer Programming, 41(3):277–294.
Omicini, A. and Papadopoulos, G. A. (2001).
Editorial: Why coordination models and languages in AI?
Applied Artificial Intelligence: An International Journal, 15(1):1–10.
Special Issue: Coordination Models and Languages in AI.
Omicini, A., Ricci, A., and Viroli, M. (2006).
Agens Faber: Toward a theory of artefacts for MAS.
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 150(3):21–36.
1st International Workshop “Coordination and Organization” (CoOrg 2005),
COORDINATION 2005, Namur, Belgium, 22 April 2005. Proceedings.
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54. References
References V
Omicini, A., Ricci, A., and Viroli, M. (2008).
Artifacts in the A&A meta-model for multi-agent systems.
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 17(3):432–456.
Special Issue on Foundations, Advanced Topics and Industrial Perspectives of Multi-Agent
Systems.
Omicini, A. and Viroli, M. (2011).
Coordination models and languages: From parallel computing to self-organisation.
The Knowledge Engineering Review, 26(1):53–59.
Special Issue 01 (25th Anniversary Issue).
Rao, A. S. (1996).
AgentSpeak(L): BDI agents speak out in a logical computable language.
In Van de Velde, W. and Perram, J. W., editors, Agents Breaking Away. 7th European
Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, MAAMAW ’96
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, January 22–25, 1996 Proceedings, pages 42–55, Berlin,
Heidelberg. Springer.
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55. References
References VI
Rao, A. S. and Georgeff, M. P. (1995).
BDI agents: From theory to practice.
In Lesser, V. R. and Gasser, L., editors, 1st International Conference on Multi Agent
Systems (ICMAS 1995), pages 312–319, San Francisco, CA, USA. The MIT Press.
Rossi, D., Cabri, G., and Denti, E. (2001).
Tuple-based technologies for coordination.
In Omicini, A., Zambonelli, F., Klusch, M., and Tolksdorf, R., editors, Coordination of
Internet Agents. Models, Technologies, and Applications, chapter 4, pages 83–109.
Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Seijas, P. L., Thompson, S., and McAdams, D. (2017).
Scripting smart contracts for distributed ledger technology.
Report 2017/1156, IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive.
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56. Blockchain for Intelligent Systems
Research Perspectives
Andrea Omicini
andrea.omicini@unibo.it
Giovanni Ciatto
giovanni.ciatto@unibo.it
Keynote @ BCT4MAS 2018
Santiago, Cile – 3 December 2018
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