Mousetrap 2.0

Abstract

The chapters in this book describe a variety of algorithms, infrastructure ideas, and applications involving large numbers of coordinated agents: Massive Multi Agent Systems (MMAS) in short. History tells us though, that powerful technological revolutions, like MMAS promises to be, often shape up in ways we cannot imagine. What Einstein said about nature holds for future technology as well - it is not only weirder than we imagine, but weirder than we can imagine. Vannevar Bush, for instance, first imagined something like the Internet in his idea for a ‘Memex’ in a popular article, As We May Think, published in the Atlantic Monthly back in 1948. While his vision inspired the original architects of the Internet, what we see today, 60 years later, would certainly dazzle even an exceptional visionary like Bush.