Agent

An agent is a goal seeking entity with one or more goals and the ability to control its own behavior in pursuit of those goals. All agent behavior can be classified as one of three types:

1. Not learned, such as genetic – Innate behavior
2. Learned from other agents – Memetic behavior
3. Learned independently – Autonomic behavior

Most of the behavior analysis at Thwink.org involves number 2, memetic behavior, because it is learned behavior that is the source of the sustainability problem, and it is changes to learned behavior that will be required to solve the problem.

There are three types of agents: genetic, memetic, and robotic. Memetic agents are our principle concern, because it is they who control the behavior of civilization at the macro level. Examples of memetic agents are corporations, religions, political ideologies, governments, and cultures.

Agent based analysis is required to solve problems caused by agent type misbehavior, which is the case with the global environmental sustainability problem.