The Immergence of Norms in Agent Worlds

In this paper, after a short review of the dichotomous view of norms usually seen as either regular behaviors or obligations issued by authorities, norms are proposed to be defined as recognized, represented and reasoned upon prescriptive commands. A normative agent architecture - EMIL-A - is presented and shown to account for a complex bidirectional dynamics of norms as social phenomena that emerge because and to the extent that they immerge in the agents' minds. Simulations run using EMIL-A will be discussed to illustrate the advantages of the present treatment of norms, over either side of the dichotomy.