Alain Cardon is a researcher at INSA-Rouen-Normandie, France. He is a specialist in artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness.Abdelkhalak El Hami is Full Professor of Universities at INSARouen-Normandie, France. He is a specialist in problems of optimization, reliability and artificial intelligence in multi-physical systems.

• Preface xiIntroduction xvChapter 1 Systems and their Designs 11.1 System modeling 11.1.1 Traditional systems 21.1.2 Complex systems 21.1.3 Systems of systems 31.2 Autonomous systems 41.3 Multi-agent systems 61.4 Organizations and systems 71.5 The problem of modeling an autonomous system 81.6 Agents and multi-agent systems 91.6.1 The weak notion of an agent 101.6.2 The strong notion of an agent 111.6.3 Cognitive agents and reactive agents 111.6.4 Multi-agent systems 131.6.5 MAS with reactive agents 141.6.6 MAS with cognitive agents 14Chapter 2 Reliability of Autonomous Systems 172.1 Introduction 172.2 Dependability of a system 182.2.1 General concepts 182.2.2 Failure and repair rates 212.2.3 Average estimators 242.2.4 Some methodological tools 272.3 Reliability diagram 282.3.1 Series system 292.3.2 Parallel system 302.3.3 Mixed system 312.3.4 More complex systems 322.3.5 Fault tree 332.4 Reliability networks 342.4.1 Partial graph associated with a subset of components 342.4.2 Reliability network and structure function 352.4.3 Properties of reliability networks 352.4.4 Length and width of a reliability network 362.4.5. Equivalence between structure function and reliability network .. 362.4.6 Construction and simplification of reliability networks 36Chapter 3 Artificial Intelligence, Communication Systems and Artificial Consciousness 393.1 Introduction 393.2 Evolution of computer science 393.3 Evolution of artificial intelligence 433.4 Radical evolution of computing and AI towards fully communicating systems 473.5 The computer representation of an artificial consciousness 53Chapter 4 The Informational Substrate of the Universe and the Organizational Law 634.1 Introduction 634.2 The fundamental principles of the informational model of generation of the Universe 634.2.1 First fundamental concept: the foundation of the Universe by a generative information system 644.2.2 Second fundamental concept: informational character of the Universe with its substrate 654.2.3 Third fundamental concept: the organizational law of generation of the Universe 674.2.4 Fourth fundamental concept: the informational energy of the substrate of the Universe 694.3 The notion of generating information in the Universe 714.3.1 The information field of a component 724.3.2 The informational activity component and its information envelope 734.3.3 Fifth fundamental concept: self-control in the organization of the Universe 744.3.4 Generative information 754.3.5 Organizational tendency of the Universe and informational envelopes 76Chapter 5 The Informational Interpretation of Living Things 815.1 Introduction 815.2 Origin of living things with bifurcation of the organizational law 825.2.1 Sixth fundamental concept: the production of living things on Earth 825.2.2 Bifurcation of the organizational law 835.2.3 Seventh fundamental concept: the central rule of organizational law in living things 845.2.4 The principle of action of the organizational law for the generation of living things 855.2.5 The life span of a living organism 875.2.6. The unification of the informational envelope with the membrane 885.2.7 The creation of sexual reproduction 895.2.8 Reasons for the production of new organisms 905.3 The informational action of reproduction of living things 915.3.1 The fundamental rule of the organizational law that formed living beings 935.3.2 Morphological patterns 945.3.3 The influence of an external morphological pattern on a living organism 955.3.4 Brain formation and sensory comprehension 975.3.5 The external organizational attractors hypothesis 995.3.6 The possibility of predicting the future of any situation in progress 995.4 The human species in the organizational evolution of living things 1005.4.1 Creation of Homo sapiens as a result of very strong evolution 1015.4.2 Organizational action of the formation of the human brain 1015.4.3. The importance of informational links between groups of humans 1035.4.4 Power of group participation in humans 104Chapter 6 The Interpretation of Neuronal Aggregates 1076.1 Introduction 1076.1.1 Form of a thought 1086.1.2. Constructivist definition of the notion of mental representation 1086.2 The systemic layer and the regulators including the informational regulator 1126.2.1 Systemic layer of the psychic system 1126.2.2 Regulators 1136.2.3. The voluntary choice of the operated aim in the psychic system 1136.2.4 The aggregate–regulator rule of co-activity 1146.2.5 Morphological role of regulators 1166.2.6 Process of intentionally producing a representation on a desired theme 1216.2.7 The organizational immersion regulator in an informational state 124Chapter 7 The Sense of Informational Comprehension of Living Organisms: The Sixth Sense 1257.1 Introduction 1257.2 The five usual senses and the use of the informational substrate 1267.2.1 The case of animals 1277.2.2 The case of plants 1287.3 The sense of informational comprehension or the sixth sense 1297.3.1 The implicit communication process of the sixth sense 1307.3.2 The voluntary process of informational communication 1317.3.3 The solicitation of the sixth sense and the comprehension of the informational substrate 1357.3.4 The cognitive and sensitive interpretation of the information forms received 1397.4 Common use of the sixth sense 1427.4.1 Common use of the sixth sense in animals and humans 1427.4.2 The action of the sixth sense for hypnosis, the power of magnetism and meditation 1477.4.3 The notion of premonition and the sixth sense 1517.4.4 Thoughts and the safeguarding of the world 153Conclusion 155Appendices 157Appendix 1 Binomial Distribution 159Appendix 2 Geometric Distribution 161Appendix 3 Poisson Distribution 163Appendix 4 Exponential Distribution 165Appendix 5 Normal Distribution 167Appendix 6 Lognormal Distribution 171Appendix 7 Weibull Distribution 175Appendix 8 Pareto Distribution 179Appendix 9 Distribution of Extreme Values 183Appendix 10 Asymptotic Distributions 185References 191Index 195