Socionics: Sociological Concepts for Social Systems of Artificial (and Human) Agents

Socionics is an interdisciplinary approach with the objective to use sociological knowledge about the structures, mechanisms and processes of social interaction and social communication as a source of inspiration for the development of multi-agent systems, both for the purposes of engineering applications and of social theory construction and social simulation. The approach has been spelled out from 1998 on within the Socionics priority program funded by the German National research foundation. This special issue of the JASSS presents research results from five interdisciplinary projects of the Socionics program. The introduction gives an overview over the basic ideas of the Socionics approach and summarizes the work of these projects.Socionics, Sociology, Multi-Agent Systems, Artificial Social Systems, Hybrid Systems, Social Simulation

From conditional commitments to generalized media: on means of coordination between self-governed entities

"In the absence of pre-established coordination structures, what can a self-governed entity – i.e. an entity that chooses on its own between its possible actions and cannot be controlled externally – do to evoke another self-governed entity’s cooperation? In this paper, the motivating conditional self-commitment is conceived to be the basic mechanism to solve coordination problems of this kind. It will be argued that such commitments have an inherent tendency to become more and more generalized and institutionalised. The sociological concept of generalized symbolic media is reinterpreted as a concept that focuses on this point. The conceptual framework resulting from the considerations is applicable to coordination problems between human actors as well as to coordination problems between artificial agents in open multi-agent systems. Thus, it may help to transfer solutions from one realm to the other." (author's abstract)Der Verfasser analysiert die soziale Koordination selbstbestimmter Einheiten unter Bedingungen, unter denen es keine vorher etablierten Koordinationsstrukturen gibt. Er zeigt, dass Engagement der wichtigste Mechanismus zur Lösung von Koordinationsproblemen ist und dass Engagement eine inhärente Tendenz zur Generalisierung und Institutionalisierung aufweist. Der Verfasser stellt einen theoretischen Rahmen vor, der auf einer Neuinterpretation des soziologischen Konzepts verallgemeinerter symbolischer Medien basiert. Dieser Rahmen lässt sich auf Koordinationsprobleme zwischen menschlichen Akteuren ebenso anwenden wie auf Koordinationsprobleme zwischen künstlichen Akteuren in offenen Multiakteursystemen, wie der Verfasser am Beispiel "Reputation" zeigt. (ICE

Enrolling software agents in human organizations: the exploration of hybrid organizations within the socionics research program

Komplexe Organisationen sind zu einem beträchtlichen Grad durch interne Inkohärenzen, durch Differenzen zwischen den einzelnen Abteilungsinteressen und durch Inkonsistenzen des Zielsystems der Organisation gekennzeichnet. Demgegenüber zielt die Informationstechnologie prinzipiell auf einen kohärenten Operationsmodus, und sie ist deshalb, als Informationssystem, an organisatorischer Kohärenz interessiert. Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier beschreibt einen "sozionomisch" orientierten Ansatz im Rahmen des INKA-Projekts (Integration kooperationsfähiger Agenten in komplexen Organisationen), das die theoretischen und technologischen Grundlagen für einen Umgang mit den Inkohärenzen und der Heterogenität in komplexen Organisationen erforscht. Die Funktionsweise dieser "multiagent architecture" wird am Beispiel der Therapieplanung in einem Krankenhaus und der damit verbundenen Informationstechnologie verdeutlicht. (ICA)To a considerable degree, complex organizations are characterized by internal incoherence, by differences between the individual departments' preferences and patterns of actions and by inconsistencies of the organization's goals. On the contrary, information technology is intended to operate in a coherent way, and, therefore, information systems, designed to support organizational processes, usually proceed from the assumption of organizational coherence. The more traditional approaches to implement information systems in organizations often lead either to dysfunctional restrictions imposed on the organization by the information system¿s need to establish firm cause/ effect relationships. Or, reversely, they lead to incoherence imposed on the information system by the organization¿s structure. With agent technology, however, we have a chance to arrive at organizational information infrastructures that allow for both sides. The paper describes the theoretical background of the INKA research project (which is part of the socionics research program funded by the DFG) that aims at developing a solution to the problem sketched above by modeling and exploring hybrid forms of interaction between humans and artificial agents within organizational settings

Who is the actor and whose goals will be pursued? Rethinking some consepts of actor network theory

"Summarising the main ideas of actor network theory, Bruno Latour (1994; reprinted in Latour 1999, 174–215)1 proposes four concepts to describe the role of technological artefacts in society: (1) interrelated programmes of action, (2) action as a property of associations of heterogeneous entities, (3) black boxing and (4) inscription. In his contribution 'Translating Medical Practices' Bernhard Wieser (2006b) refers to these four concepts as a means to analyse prenatal testing and changes that occur in conjunction with the increased use of ultrasound screening and additional non-invasive examination methods. The interest he shares with the authors of actor network theory is to gain an understanding of the role of technology that is neither obscured by technological determinism nor by social determinism. Actor network theory—and still more Latour's pronounced position within this strand of thinking - contradicts common sense views about technological artefacts. The empirical examples Latour provides in his texts are carefully chosen to clarify his counterintuitive point of view - e.g. the street bump (Latour 1992, 244) or the Berlin key (Latour 1996a, 37–51). Likewise, he presents thought experiments that are carefully designed to tell his story—such as the hypothetical reconstruction of the programmes of action and anti-programmes concerning the issue of leaving hotel keys at the front desk (Latour 1991) or his considerations concerning the combined action of the shooter and the gun (Latour 1994). In order to illustrate his concepts Latour applies them to a purified reality. There is nothing wrong with this but in empirical reality, as Michel Callon (1992, 79) states, '(i)mpurity is the rule'. There, the ideal typical entities and events which provide the most striking evidence for the theorist's concepts are seldom to be found. However, it is with respect to understanding impure reality that the theoretical concepts have to prove their usefulness. In the case of Latourian actor network theory this means reconsidering some of its main concepts. I will do this by discussing Wieser's considerations about applying actor network theory to the case of prenatal testing." (author's abstract)Der Autor setzt sich kritisch mit den Ausführungen von Bernhard Wieser im vorliegenden Sammelband auseinander, welcher vorgeschlagen hat, die Diskussionen zur Pränataldiagnostik aus der Perspektive einer Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie zu betrachten. Der Autor wirft die Frage auf, wer hier im einzelnen der Akteur ist und wo eher eine "black box" zu vermuten ist. Er argumentiert, dass die pränatalen Untersuchungen und Testverfahren eine schwangere Frau auf verschiedene Art und Weise neu definieren. Sie machen Frauen insbesondere zum medizinischen Versuchsobjekt und zu einer vorläufig Schwangeren. Darüber hinaus werden die Eltern durch die pränatalen Tests in Entscheidungsträger für oder gegen ein Kind verwandelt. Der Autor kommt zu der Schlussfolgerung, dass die Pränataldiagnostik nicht zwischen den unterschiedlichen Graden unterscheidet, in denen sich solche Redefinitionen vollziehen. (ICI

The position fields of technology: a role-theoretical approach to socio-technical networks

This article builds on the idea of actor-network theory to use role terminology for describing the heterogeneous associations that make up technological innovations. Referring to key concepts of sociological role theory it proposes a more elaborate role-theoretical approach to socio-technical networks. It is argued that technological innovations consist of fields of positions to be occupied by human actors or techno-logical artifacts. Network-building thus is viewed as a process of establishing sets of interrelated positions. Consequently, actors and objects are relevant only in their capacity as occupants of positions. The role-theoretical approach draws attention to the fact that the human and nonhuman components of a technological innovation may hold several positions within the socio-technical network and may play functional and social roles at the same time. The conceptual approach is illustrated with two examples from the history of the automobile: the chauffeur problem and the invention of the jaywalker

Three Forms of Interpretative Flexibility

Interpretative flexibility is a central concept of social constructivism in science and technology studies. We think this concept, as it exists, can and should be elaborated. In this paper, we argue that interpretative flexibility can be traced back to three different forms of infinite regress: the regress of truth, the regress of usefulness, and the regress of relevance. Resulting from this analysis, we observe three different forms of interpretative flexibility. We will show that in controversies or debates concerning the meaning of certain scientific facts, technological artefacts or research approaches, concurrently or consecutively more than one of these different forms of interpretative flexibility may play a part. With this reconceptualisation of interpretative flexibility, we hope to contribute to a more elaborate understanding of the dynamics of the social construction of scientific facts and technological artefacts

Isolation of three novel rat and mouse papillomaviruses and their genomic characterization.

Despite a growing knowledge about the biological diversity of papillomaviruses (PV), only little is known about non-human PV in general and about PV mice models in particular. We cloned and sequenced the complete genomes of two novel PV types from the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus; RnPV2) and the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus; AsPV1) as well as a novel variant of the recently described MmuPV1 (originally designated as MusPV) from a house mouse (Mus musculus; MmuPV1 variant). In addition, we conducted phylogenetic analyses using a systematically representative set of 79 PV types, including the novel sequences. As inferred from concatenated amino acid sequences of six proteins, MmuPV1 variant and AsPV1 nested within the Beta+Xi-PV super taxon as members of the Pi-PV. RnPV2 is a member of the Iota-PV that has a distant phylogenetic position from Pi-PV. The phylogenetic results support a complex scenario of PV diversification driven by different evolutionary forces including co-divergence with hosts and adaptive radiations to new environments. PV types particularly isolated from mice and rats are the basis for new animal models, which are valuable to study PV induced tumors and new treatment options