The Insufficiency of Formal Design Methods
- the necessity of an experimental approach
for the understanding and control of complex MAS

By: Bruce Edmonds and Joann Bryson
Date: 20th January 2004
CPM Report No.: CPM-04-128

This is a version of CPM Report 126 with added formal material.

Published as:

Edmonds, B. & Bryson, J. (2004) The Insufficiency of Formal Design Methods - the necessity of an experimental approach for the understanding and control of complex MAS. In Jennings, N. R. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the 3rd Internation Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multi Agent Systems (AAMAS'04), July 19-23, 2004, New York. ACM Press, pp. 938-945.

Abstract

We highlight the limitations of formal methods by exhibiting two results in recursive function theory: that there is no effective means of finding a program that satisfies a given formal specification; or checking that a program meets a specification.  We also exhibit a ‘simple’ MAS which has all the power of a Turing machine.  We then argue that any ‘pure design’ methodology will face insurmountable difficulties in today’s open and complex MAS.  Rather we suggest a methodology based on the classic experimental method – that is ‘scientific foundations’ for the construction and control of complex MAS.

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