This book discusses the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset, separate from physical entities, that can enable us to understand and/or change the world. It provides a thorough treatment of knowledge, one that is free of ideological and philosophical preconceptions, and which relies exclusively on concepts and principles from the theory of computing and logic. It starts with an introduction to knowledge as truthful and useful information, and its development and management by computers and humans. It analyses the relationship between computational processes and physical phenomena, as well as the processes of knowledge production and application by humans and computers. In turn, the book presents autonomous systems that are called upon to replace humans in complex operations as a step toward strong AI, and discusses the risks - real or hypothetical - of the careless use of these systems. It compares human and machine intelligence, attempting to answer the question of whether and to what extent computers, as they stand today, can approach human-level situation awareness and decision-making. Lastly, the book explains the functioning of individual consciousness as an autonomous system that manages short- and long-term objectives on the basis of value criteria and accumulated knowledge. It discusses how individual values are shaped in society and the role of institutions in fostering and maintaining a common set of values for strengthening social cohesion. The book differs from books on the philosophy of science in many respects, e.g. by considering knowledge in its multiple facets and degrees of validity and truthfulness. It follows the dualist tradition of logicians, emphasizing the importance of logic and language and considering an abstract concept of information very different from the one used in the physical sciences. From this perspective, it levels some hopefully well-founded criticism at approaches that consider information and knowledge as nothing more than the emergent properties of physical phenomena. The book strikes a balance between popular books that sidestep fundamental issues and focus on sensationalism, and scientific or philosophical books that are not accessible to non-experts. As such, it is intended for a broad audience interested in the role of knowledge as a driver for change and development, and as a common good whose production and application could shape the future of humanity.

This book discusses the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset, separate from physical entities, that can enable us to understand and/or change the world. It provides a thorough treatment of knowledge, one that is free of ideological and philosophical preconceptions, and which relies exclusively on concepts and principles from the theory of computing and logic. It starts with an introduction to knowledge as truthful and useful information, and its development and management by computers and humans. It analyses the relationship between computational processes and physical phenomena, as well as the processes of knowledge production and application by humans and computers. In turn, the book presents autonomous systems that are called upon to replace humans in complex operations as a step toward strong AI, and discusses the risks – real or hypothetical – of the careless use of these systems. It compares human and machine intelligence, attempting to answer the question of whether and to what extent computers, as they stand today, can approach human-level situation awareness and decision-making. Lastly, the book explains the functioning of individual consciousness as an autonomous system that manages short- and long-term objectives on the basis of value criteria and accumulated knowledge. It discusses how individual values are shaped in society and the role of institutions in fostering and maintaining a common set of values for strengthening social cohesion. The book differs from books on the philosophy of science in many respects, e.g. by considering knowledge in its multiple facets and degrees of validity and truthfulness. It follows the dualist tradition of logicians, emphasizing the importance of logic and language and considering an abstract concept of information very different from the one used in the physical sciences. From this perspective, it levels some hopefully well-founded criticism at approaches that consider information and knowledge as nothing more than the emergent properties of physical phenomena. The book strikes a balance between popular books that sidestep fundamental issues and focus on sensationalism, and scientific or philosophical books that are not accessible to non-experts. As such, it is intended for a broad audience interested in the role of knowledge as a driver for change and development, and as a common good whose production and application could shape the future of humanity.

Embedded systems now include a very large proportion of the advanced products designed in the world, spanning transport (avionics, space, automotive, trains), electrical and electronic appliances (cameras, toys, televisions, home appliances, audio systems, and cellular phones), process control (energy production and distribution, factory automation and optimization), telecommunications (satellites, mobile phones and telecom networks), and security (e-commerce, smart cards), etc. The extensive and increasing use of embedded systems and their integration in everyday products marks a significant evolution in information science and technology. We expect that within a short timeframe embedded systems will be a part of nearly all equipment designed or manufactured in Europe, the USA, and Asia. There is now a strategic shift in emphasis for embedded systems designers: from simply achieving feasibility, to achieving optimality. Optimal design of embedded systems means targeting a given market segment at the lowest cost and delivery time possible. Optimality implies seamless integration with the physical and electronic environment while respecting real-world constraints such as hard deadlines, reliability, availability, robustness, power consumption, and cost. In our view, optimality can only be achieved through the emergence of embedded systems as a discipline in its own right.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Embedded Software, EMSOFT 2002, held in Grenoble, France in October 2002.The book presents 13 invited papers by leading researchers and 17 revised full papers selected during a competitive round of reviewing. The book spans the whole range of embedded software, including operating systems and middleware, programming languages and compilers, modeling and validation, software engineering and programming methodologies, scheduling and execution-time analysis, formal methods, and communication protocols and fault-tolerance

This volume contains the proceedings of a workshop held in Grenoble in June 1989. This was the first workshop entirely devoted to the verification of finite state systems. The workshop brought together researchers and practitioners interested in the development and use of methods, tools and theories for automatic verification of finite state systems. The goal at the workshop was to compare verification methods and tools to assist the applications designer. The papers in this volume review verification techniques for finite state systems and evaluate their relative advantages. The techniques considered cover various specification formalisms such as process algebras, automata and logics. Most of the papers focus on exploitation of existing results in three application areas: hardware design, communication protocols and real-time systems.

Rigorous System Design deals with the formalization of the design of mixed hardware/software systems. It advocates rigorous system design as a coherent and accountable model-based process leading from requirements to correct implementations. It presents the current state of the art in system design, discusses its limitations and identifies possible avenues for overcoming them. A rigorous system design flow is defined as a formal accountable and iterative process composed of steps, and based on four principles: 1) separation of concerns; 2) component-based construction; 3) semantic coherency; 4) correctness-by-construction. The combined application of these principles allows the definition of a methodology clearly identifying where human intervention and ingenuity are needed to resolve design choices, as well as activities that can be supported by tools to automate tedious and error-prone tasks. The presented view for rigorous system design has been amply implemented in the BIP (Behavior, Interaction, Priority) component framework and substantiated by numerous experimental results showing both its relevance and feasibility.Rigorous System Design concludes with a discussion advocating a system-centric vision for computing, identifying possible links with other disciplines and emphasizing centrality of system design. It is an ideal primer for researchers and practitioners interested in the design of mixed hardware/software systems.