Viewing Control Structures as Patterns of Passing Messages

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some organizational aspects of programs using the actor model of computation. In this paper we present an approach to modelling intelligence in terms of a society of communicating knowledge-based problem-solving experts. In turn each of the experts can be viewed as a society that can be further decomposed in the same way until th primitive actors fo the system are reached. We are investigating the nature of the communication mechanisms needed for effective problem-solving by a society of experts and the conventions of discourse that make this possible. In this way we hope eventually to develop a framework adequate for the discussion of the central issues of problem-solving involving parallel versus serial processing and centralization versus decentralization of control and information storage.