Paramesh wrote
> >
>
>However, not all activities may be reduced to activities of individuals.
>For example, it is possible to imagine certain joint actions which may not
>be decomposable into individual actions. Two individuals
>(say, John and Peter) shaking hands together cannot be deifned using
>individual's actions.
>Thus, without Peter, it is hard to describe what John is doing in the act of
>handshaking. In any case, at least in artificial agents, it is not clear
>why
>we can't think of collective activites and behaviours which may not be
>decomposable into individual actions/behaviours.
here it is said that *not always* social activities are decomposable
in individual activities. There are intrinsically social, or
multi-agent, activities.
I agree, and I would add that also some *properties* of individuals
are intrinsically multi-agent. Agents derive some of their properties
from super-individual entities and activities. This is not to be
intended in the sense that members *inherit* characteristics of their
class. But, much more interestingly that they derive *individual
properties* from super-individual activities and entities: this is
the case with reputation, for example. Of course, agents may inherit
the reputation of the group which they belong to. But they may also
acquire an independent, individual reputation, whether they want it
or not, and whether they believe it or not. These emergent individual
properties are also "objective", They play a role in agents'
achievements, independent of agents' mental states. You may suffer
from a bad reputation, or enjoy a good one, without knowing it. This
is an example of effects of social structures that are not reflected
into the agents' representations.
Properties like reputation are *emergent* top-down effects. This
appears to be a paradox, but it is not. Agents derive them (another
example is responsibility) from their being involved into a
super-individual entity or activity.
ross
ross
Rosaria Conte
National Research Council, Institute of Psychology, V.LE Marx 15, 00137 Roma.
Division "AI, Cognitive and Interaction Modelling"
PSS (Project on Social Simulation) - voice:+39+06+86090210;fax:+39+06+824737
email: [log in to unmask] - http://ip.rm.cnr.it
University of Siena - Communication Sciences - "Social Psychology"
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