Agents on the Web: The Emergence of Language Among Autonomous Agents

IEEE INTERNET COMPUTING During a break in the Autonomous Agents 2000 conference last month in Barcelona, we went souvenir shopping. On the outskirts of the city, an old man in a dilapidated store had some interesting wares, but he spoke only Catalan and we spoke only English and Polish. Nevertheless, even without a common language, we managed to reach an agreement. We left not only with the souvenirs but also knowing their names in Catalan. How did the purchase proceed? As you might imagine, we pointed to the items we were interested in and the shopkeeper pointed to the appropriate coins in our hands. We even engaged in some bartering by offering fewer coins. Why did the purchase succeed? First, we all shared a common knowledge of buying and selling. Second, this knowledge included the value of money (the medium of exchange). And fundamentally, we all understood each other’s basic goals for the transaction.