SwarmFest abstract

[Roger Burkhart]

In keeping with other abstracts recently posted to this list, here's
an abstract for a talk I'm planning at the upcoming SwarmFest.


Lifecycle Structures: Using Life History to Express Shared Models

For presentation at SwarmFest 2000, Logan, Utah, March 11-13, 2000

Roger Burkhart
VantagePoint Network
address@hidden

ABSTRACT

The lifecycle model is a set of ideas for building and sharing conceptual
models.  Such models are expressed at a logical level of abstraction that
is independent of any concrete computational implementation.  They may
express any range of selected content, from a passive record of external
input to the autonomous action of a living structure.  A conceptual model
of lifecycle structure starts with a formal, logical core to capture the
content of some selected domain, but this domain includes the process
by which the model itself is defined and detailed.  Every model consists
of a progressive elaboration from an initial controlling structure through
an ongoing selection out of a remaining potential.  Internal structures
can include an executable representation of distributed, concurrent
activity like that of the Swarm simulation system.  These internal plans
can add a variety of forms of processing as inherent working parts of
any model, from direct response to external events to construction and
management of internal models.  Any model can incorporate procedural or
declarative levels of cognitive interpretation and response over some
real or hypothetical domain.  A framework for accessing, sharing and
recombining any fragment of a lifecycle process from any other provides
an underlying support for interaction and a short-cut for development
of any specific individual.  A set of conventions for a standardized
form of lifecycle structure is itself published as a particular example
of the generic structure.  This initial structure encodes the essential
features of the lifecycle model and provides a starter set of universal
elements out of which to build any other model.



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