--- abstract: 'Computational experiments are reported involving the concept of foreknowledge, an agent’s direct, unmediated and accurate, but possibly incomplete, awareness of its future including states and events involving the agent itself. Foreknowledge is used here as a conceptual tool with which to explore certain issues around time and rationality. We first explain how foreknowledge in this sense may be given to the agents in an agent society on a computer. The generation of a world history is viewed as a process of solving a constraint satisfaction problem. Then we seek to understand the circumstances in which foreknowledge may be either beneficial or detrimental to a society of rational agents. A special case is when agents have foreknowledge of their own “deaths”. An experimental interpretation of this special case has been implemented, and results are presented and discussed. Finally, the work reported is briefly discussed in the context of current theories of time. ' altloc: [] chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Doran given: J E honourific: Prof lineage: '' date: 2003 date_type: published datestamp: 2004-12-03 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/39/74 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Hutter given: D honourific: Dr lineage: '' - family: Stephan given: W honourific: Dr lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 3974 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_postscript.png;/3974/1/Agents_with_Exact_Foreknowledge__%2D%2D_Doran.ps full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: inpress issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: foreknowledge agents time rationality lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:45 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: ~ pubdom: FALSE publication: Festschrift for Joerg Siekmann publisher: Springer refereed: TRUE referencetext: | References 1. Doran, J.: Foreknowledge in Artificial Societies. In: Conte, R., Hegselmann, R., Terna, P. (eds.): Simulating Social Phenomena. LNEMS 456. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1997) 457-469 2. Doran, J. E.: Simulating Collective Misbelief. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 1(1) (1998) 3. Fisher, M.: A Survey of Concurrent METATEM: the Language and its Applications. In: Gabbay, D. M., Ohlbach, H. J. (eds.): Temporal Logic. LNAI 827, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1994) 480-505 4. Horwich, P.: Closed Causal Chains. In: Savitt(1995) 5. Knight, B., Ma, J.: Time Representation: a Taxonomy of Temporal Models. Artificial Intelligence Review 7 (6) (1994) 401-419 6. Le Poidevin, R., MacBeath, M. (eds.): The Philosophy of Time. Oxford Readings in Philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1993) 7. McDermott, D. V.: A Temporal Logic for Reasoning about Processes and Plans. Cog. Sci. 6: (1982) 101-155 8. Newton-Smith, W. H.: The Structure of Time. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London (1980) 9. O’Sullivan, S. (ed. & trans.): Folktales of Ireland. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1966) 10. Savitt, S. F. (ed.): Time’s Arrows Today. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England (1995) 11. Schlesinger, G. N.: Aspects of Time. Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis (1980) 12. Tsang, E.: Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction. Academic Press, London (1993) 13. Wooldridge, M.: Time, Knowledge and Choice (preliminary report) In: Wooldridge, M., Muller, J., Tambe, M. (eds.): Intelligent Agents II: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. LNAI 1037. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1996) relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:54:47 subjects: - comp-sci-art-intel succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: Agents with Exact Foreknowledge type: bookchapter userid: 5128 volume: ~