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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 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 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.
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