Advice on which forums to use

[petersmall]

I'm new to webmasterworld forums and seeing the vast range of different topics covered is somewhat daunting.

My interest is in developing Web site systems based upon biological systems and agent technology. Which of the forums would be most approriate for discussing these arcane subject areas?

[Nick_W]

Can you tell us what you mean by 'biological systems and agent technologies'?

Maybe I'm a bit dense but I don't know what you mean ;)

Oh, and welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Nick

[killroy]

You probably should post in th etopic area you wish to address in your systems. Biologically inspired agent systems and genetic AIs are just tools, like CSS or hidden text. They are used to solve problems, for example of navigation, content creation, relation and teh like. I think it would be best to post to the forum that covers your target area of interest.

I would love to hear your discussions, as I did extensive research into genetic programming and AI before I got started on web programming. And I've always look aas to how to employ my AIs to create valuable, human-readable websites from scratch.

SN

[heini]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Peter.

If you wish to discuss the more technical aspects the Website Technology forum would be a good starting point.

Other related topics could fit in Content, for example, depending on the focus of the post.

[Marcia]

Google search for biologically inspired agent systems [google.com].

Way over my head, but fascinating. I'd agree, Website Technology seems the best place.

[georgeek]

killroy ...I did extensive research into genetic programming and AI before I got started on web programming.

So did I! But it was such a long time ago :( - it was one of the first programs to use genetic algorithms for deriving rules from data - terrific fun.

[petersmall]

Nick_W asked:

>"Can you tell us what you mean by 'biological systems and agent technologies'? "

Briefly, a biological approch is appropriate when dealing with change, uncertainty, ambiguity, subjectivity, competition and human activity. These are problems that cannot be handled efficiently by conventional computer technology.

Biological systems have learned how to deal with these kind of problems by using clever strategies. Using these strategies in IT offers novel approaches to the exchange of information.

There's a full explanation on my Web site, but in a nutshell:

1) Instead of planning and purposeful design, you use an evolutionary strategy of self-organization.

2) Instead of database technology, you use agent technology.

3) Instead of algorithms you use stigmergy.

It is a kind of thinking that is quite different from the logical and procedural approch used to design most systems.

I got into this after producing a CD-ROM to explain evolution. Then, while writing a book on using object-oriented programming, I realised that biological systems were effectively using OOP programming techniques. This got me into agent technology and from there into complex systems and self-organization.

What is amazing is how all this relates directly to what is happening on the Web.

[killroy]

Well, to all interested in Genetic Programming I HIGHLy recommend the Books by Koza, who fathered teh entirey subject area. He got me started, and once I dug deeper using citeseer to fidn newer papers I did some impressive stuff. It's jsut gorgeous how it just works.

SN

[petersmall]

Killroy,

I'm interested in the comments in your profile about you creating your own scripting language and using it to create large DB sites.

Could you enlarge on this a little please?

peter

[Marcia]

Forgot about getting back on this. Never realized the level of sophistication around here! It's actually described as being marketing oriented, but the closest that's appropriate by type of orientation would be

SEM Research Topics [webmasterworld.com]

It'll generally appeal to people delving deep into theory.