From: rjones@colby.edu   
      
   Gooseman wrote:   
   > I have a quote from Van Parunak that says "...as agents get smarter,   
   > their functionality goes down".   
   >   
   > Does any one have a direct reference to this - something that backs   
   > this up? It is an interesting thought.   
      
   To my mind, this is one of those statements that can be either true or   
   false, depending on how you choose to define "smart" and "functional".   
      
    From what I know of Van's work, I'd assume (but this is only an   
   assumption) he means that a "light" agent is probably efficient, and   
   perhaps also more general in the sense that its knowledge is not highly   
   tuned and conditionalized to particular tasks.  If that's the case, my   
   counter-argument would be that "smarter" also implies generality,   
   although perhaps of a different sort.  In a "smarter" agent, the   
   individual units of knowledge may be more specific, but there are also a   
   lot more of them, covering a broad range of situations.  If not, then   
   why would we say the agent is "smarter"?   
      
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