Figure 1: The architecture of STOs. TOWARDS SEMIOTIC AGENT-BASED MODELS OF SOCIO-TECHNICAL ORGANIZATIONS Cliff Joslyn and Luis M. Rocha Computer Research and Applications Group (CIC-3) Los Alamos National Laboratory MS B265, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 {joslyn,rocha}@lanl.gov http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~{joslyn,rocha} Citation: Joslyn, Cliff and Luis M. Rocha [2000]. "Towards Semiotic Agent_Based Models of Socio_Technical Organizations." Proc. AI, Simulation and Planning in High Autonomy Systems (AIS 2000) Conference, Tucson, Arizona, USA. ed. HS Sarjoughian et al., pp. 70-79. ABSTRACT We present an approach to agent modeling of socio-technical organizations based on the principles of semiotics. After reviewing complex systems theory and traditional Artificial Life (ALife) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to agent-based modeling, we introduce the fundamental principles of semiotic agents as decision-making entities embedded in artificial environments and exchanging and interpreting semiotic tokens. We proceed to discuss the design requirements for semiotic agents, including those for artificial environments with a rich enough “virtual physics” to support selected self- organization; semiotic agents as implementing a generalized control relation; and situated communication and shared knowledge within a community of such agents. We conclude with a discussion of the resulting properties of such systems for dynamical incoherence, and finally describe an application to the simulation of the decision structures of Command and Control Organizations. 1. MOTIVATION Our world is becoming an interlocking collective of Socio-Technical Organizations (STOs): large numbers of groups of people hyperlinked by information channels and interacting with computer systems, and which themselves interact with a variety of physical systems in order to maintain them under conditions of good control. Primary examples of STOs include Command and Control Organizations (CCOs) such as 911/Emergency Response Systems (911/ERS) and military organizations, as well as utility infrastructures such as power grids, gas pipelines, and the Internet. The architecture of such systems is shown in Fig. 1, where a physical system is controlled by a computer-based information network, which in turn interacts with a hierarchically structured organization of semiotic agents.