Abstract:The connection with Wirth's book goes beyond the title, albeit confining the area to modern Artificial Intelligence (AI). Whereas thirty years ago, to devise effective programs, it became necessary to enhance the classical algorithmic framework with approaches applied to limited and focused subdomains, in the context of broad-band technology and semantic web, applications -running in open, heterogeneous, dynamic and uncertain environments-current paradigms are not enough, because of the shift from programs to processes. Beside the structure as position paper, to give more weight to some basic assertions, results of recent research are abridged and commented upon in line with new paradigms. Among the conclusions: a) Nondeterministic software is unavoidable; its development entails not just new design principles but new computing paradigms. b) Agent-oriented systems, to be effectual, should merge conventional agent design with approaches employed in advanced distributed systems (where parallelism is intrinsic to the problem, not just a mean to speed up).

Extending metaphorically the Moisilean idea of "nuanced-reasoning logic" and adapting it to the e-world age of Information Technology (IT), the paper aims at showing that new logics, already useful in modern software engineering, become necessary mainly for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), despite obvious adversities. The first sections are typical for a position paper, defending such logics from an anthropocentric perspective. Through this sieve, Section 4 outlines the features asked for by the paradigm of computing as intelligent interaction, based on "nuances of nuanced-reasoning", that should be reflected by agent logics. To keep the approach credible, Section 5 illustrates how quantifiable synergy can be reached -even in advanced challenging domains, such as stigmergic coordination -by injecting symbolic reasoning in systems based on sub-symbolic "emergent synthesis". Since for future work too the preferred logics are doxastic, the conclusions could be structured in line with the well-known agent architecture: Beliefs, Desires, Intentions.

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