Intelligent agents and government: April 07, 1997 issue of New Thinking

April 07, 1997 New Thinking:
Human diversity

Website content management

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April 07, 1997

Intelligent agents and government

By Gerry McGovern

A lot of us like to browse and compare when we are shopping.

Where is the best place to establish a shoe shop in Dublin? North Earl Street would be worth considering, since it is known for its shoe shops. If I’m thinking of buying a pair of shoes, then there’s a fair chance I’ll walk down it.

Although we call the software we use to access the Web a ‘browser’, it doesn’t really help us browse that well. We need to add more power to our Netscape or Microsoft browsers before we get that browsing feel. A next level of power has been delivered by search directories such as Yahoo! and search engines such as Alta Vista.

However, these can be relatively unsatisfactory ways to browse. Searching in Yahoo! for ‘shoe shops’ got me a zero response. Alta Vista gave me nine responses, and most of them were sports shops.

This is a world of billions of people. The Internet and its ‘price-of-a-local-call’ may bring about the death of physical distance, but this ‘death’ merely gives birth to a huge new distance: ‘digital distance.’

Masses of data. Masses of information. Masses more than the eye can see or the mind comprehend.

Every digital megabyte is a mile of physical distance. Getting the wrong information is like taking a wrong turn. It wastes our time. It wastes our energy. It wastes our productivity. It wastes our money.

The role of traditional Government is a complex one. It includes making sense out of the geography around us, facilitating the smooth operation of commerce and society, maintaining order, planning and steering a nation on a sound political and economic course.

Without government the Internet will fall into chaos. Intelligent agents can play a role in ensuring this doesn’t happen. They are pieces of software focused on organizing and getting the best out of our digital geography. They will become extensions of our will, aiding in the fulfillment of our needs and wants. They will venture into the digital wilderness and bring back to me the list of the shoe shops that can supply the type of shoes I want.

‘Intelligent agent’ can be a phrase for all seasons, but it does define a great need in the sprawling and growing digital world we find ourselves swimming in. The waves of information overload crash down on us with increasing momentum. We are swimming ever harder to reach the dry land of useful information.

For the Internet to have a stable and commercial future it requires government; stability, definition, order. The government the Internet receives may be very different from the forms of government we now know, but government it will be.

In time, we will send our agents out into the digital databased world. Only when they have filtered and refined the selection will we venture forth.

Some say that this is a denial of choice and chance. Ten choices is choice. One million choices is a chore. Our agents may indeed limit ‘chance,’ but then every choice has a price.

In ten years I may say to my agent, ‘Find me a selection of the type of shoes I like for business wear.’

By Gerry McGovern

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Ten choices is choice. One million choices is a chore.