1. Mobility, Interfacing Ability, Autonomy, Learning
2. Autonomy, Social Ability, Reactivity, Proactiveness
3. Self-Awareness, Adaptivity, Autonomy, Humour
4. Interactivity, Social Conduct, Portability, Obedience

Q2. Which of the following examples could be characterised as software agents?

1. A web search engine (eg Yahoo)
2. A web browser (eg Netscape Navigator)
3. A Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) game
4. A computer virus

Q3. Why is it necessary to develop agent-specific languages?

1. AI Languages do not support the required features of practical agent applications.
2. A platform-independent language is required to create mobile agents.
3. To be able to support a knowledge-based oriented communication.
4. To allow programmers to share and develop agent code with ease.

Q4. Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. An agent is self-aware of its environment.
2. Agents can procreate so as to better future generations.
3. An agent is self-aware of its entity.
4. An agent is able to alter itself in order to adapt in hostile environments.

Q5. How can software agents be used to improve travel reservation systems?

1. To allow governmental monitoring of all actions.
2. To aid in travel schedule optimisation.
3. For cost reduction, therefore profit maximisation.
4. For better comfort in travel.

Q6. Who may be interested in software agents?

1. Telecommunication companies.
2. Military or space-travel projects.
3. Retail industry.
4. Political campaigns.

Q7. What does Marvin Minsky refer to by his society of mind?

1. A sociological structure of the mental interactions between people.
2. A model of intelligence based on the synthetic networking of mental processes.
3. A specific algorithm for problem solving.
4. A learning method for agent-based systems.

Q8. What would the requirements be of an agent-based travel reservation system?

1. User friendly interface.
2. Hard real-time responses.
3. Personalised user-profiles.
4. Connectivity and compatibility with existing systems.

Q9. Truths about today's software agent technology.

1. They exhibit advanced mobility.
2. They have great learning abilities.
3. Exhibition of common sense knowledge level.
4. They have the ability to negotiate between themselves and human operators.

Q10. What are the current features of travel reservation systems?

1. Form or text-based input
2. Can suggest possible destinations to a customer, according to his/her preferences
3. Distributed systems
4. Virtual reality user interface

The correct answer is B. Autonomy, Social Ability, Reactivity and Proactiveness are the properties that define agenthood. Most of the properties mentioned in the other answers commonly appear in agents, but they are not necessary conditions for agenthood.

A2. Which of the following examples could be characterised as software agents?

In this question, there can be no absolute answer. However, we should point out the following: a search engine might be implemented using agent technology, totally or partially, so we cannot clearly characterise such an application as a software agent. A web browser, although a program that remotely interfaces the conduct of information is simply a client and may not exhibit the general behaviour of an agent. A MUD game is simply a game that supports multiple, concurrent, remote players thus it has nothing to do with agents. A virus is an agent, since it is autonomous, it responds to environmental changes, it takes action by initiative (proactiveness) and interacts with the system it is resident to (social ability).

A3. Why is it necessary to develop agent-specific languages?

The correct answers are A and C. Platform independence (answer B) is not an issue for agent applications as agents do not operate in distributed environments as usual software applications (ie they don't just settle and run in remote systems, rather negotiate with them). Answer D is obviously incorrect.

A4. Which of the following statements is/are correct?

Answers A and B are correct. Agents have some kind of sense of the environment in which they reside so as to react to it and they may also reproduce themselves by cloning so as to spawn instances of them in remote systems. Answer C is far beyond current technological capabilities, although future software agents may very well become self-aware. Answer D is partially correct. Adaptivity is a powerful property that is not shared by all agents.

A5. How can software agents be used to improve travel reservation systems?

The most obvious answers here are B and C. Government monitoring (Answer A), although a possibility lies within the realms of conspiraciology. Travel comfort (Answer D) is not a software issue anyway.

A6. Who may be interested in software agents?

In this question it is tough to give a black and white answer. Almost anyone who's interested in software applications will have something to gain from the evolution of agent technology, as it is in fact a better software technology. Among these answers though, most examples of current agent research lie within the limits of telecommunications or military projects (agent research is expensive, so only large organisations can afford it yet).

A7. What does Marvin Minsky refer to by his society of mind?

The correct answer is B. Marvin Minsky strictly defines his society of mind as "the scheme under which each mind is made of many smaller processes. These, we'll call agents. Each mental agent by itself can do some simple thing that needs no mind or thought at all. Yet, when we join these agents in societies - in certain very special ways - this leads to true intelligence."

A8. What would the requirements be of an agent-based travel reservation system?

Answers A, C and D are correct. Hard real-time response (Answer B) is not an issue here; although travel reservation systems are classic examples of real-time systems, they do not have hard time limits imposed on their turnaround.

A9. Truths about today's software agent technology.

The correct answers are A and D. One of the few agent properties that have been greatly developed is mobility (eg infosearch bots). Also the intercommunication between the agents and human operators is the raison d'etre of software agents. Common sense is beyond the reach of contemporary AI, as well as advanced learning abilities, although research in the latter is more promising.

A10. What are the current features of travel reservation systems?

Correct answers are A and C. Current travel reservation systems use crude text or form-based interfaces. They are, by nature, distributed systems, due to the requirement of information sharing. Answers B and D are not valid, however in future systems, the development of these aspects is possible.