The term “intelligent systems” has come to mean many different things in many different contexts and, like most things related to complex systems, it is hard to nail down a specific definition that is both rigorous enough to discriminate out those things which should not be included but is loose enough to include those that are. As in defining terms like “agents” or “robots,” one is able to find overly inclusive definitions, such as “an autonomously acting entity” where a thermostat in the latter case, or hard disk controller in the former, would meet the definition. On the other hand, tighten up the definition and telerobotics or Google’s search bots no longer fit, despite being clearly related technologically. In the case of intelligent systems, too tight a definition of intelligence removes, say, the behaviors we see in a dog, which can seek out a prey or be trained to beg for its dinner, but loosen the definition and we find ourselves talking about systems with the intelligence of...
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Hendler, J.A. (2013). Intelligent Systems, Introduction to. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_289-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_289-2
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