Acquaintance relations in autonomous agent societies

Interactions in multiagent systems; a class of autonomous distributed systems, are considered. Autonomy in such settings implies rational actions in unforeseen surroundings where one system may have to interact with a varying number and various types of systems at different times. In order to adapt adequately and effectively to new situations, a system should dynamically become knowledgeable of a selected number of systems in its surroundings. For this purpose, it has to find those systems that are relevant to it, that is, those that may support or hinder it in achieving its goals, and those that may require its support. The factors influencing the search for and discovery of relevant systems are specified, and the reasoning and decision processes involved are described