8.3.1 In 1997 world chess champion Garri Kasparov lost for the first time against 'Deep Blue,' IBM's speedy super-computer. Kasparov himself expressed as his greatest wish the possession of a combination of human intelligence and computer memory-not simulation of human intelligence but intelligent access to the archives. It is no longer the storing and archiving of information, but the suppression of it that has become a central cultural technique of the information age. And for this, we turn to non-human agents-to search, filter, and select the information we need.

8.3.2 According to traditional humanist notions, what marks human agency is "action" as opposed to mere "motions" of the machines. Human action is intentional, responsive, and "free." Could non-humans ever be agents? That question is aptly posed by Michel Callon and John Law and is what I would like to preface my review of agent technologies with. This is a question that philosophers, socio-biologists, theologians, science-fiction writers, scientists, and those working with the technologies are grappling with.

8.3.3 "It's a hot topic because it sometimes seems that there are all sorts of non-human entities, such as cyborgs, intelligent machines, genes, and demons lose in the world. Along with ozone holes, market forces, discourses, the subconscious, and the unnameable Other. And, or so many claim, such non-humans actors seem to be multiplying. For if angels and demons are on the decline in the relatively secularised West, then perhaps robocops and hidden psychological agendas-not to mention unnameable Others-are on the increase. (Callon, Law, 1995, pg. 481)

In their essay they challenge the notion of human and non-human agency and make an important point that it is the relations but also their heterogeneity that are important. [top]