The social consequences of using agent-based systems

The starting point of this paper is that the proper functioning of agent-based systems depends on the understanding of their societal effects on us. Only by understanding the inter-relationship between the agent-based systems and their resources can we ensure that such systems are not designed and developed in isolation of the social context in wich they find their purposes. However, the consequences of deploying agent-based systems are not well defined in het current literature. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of this issue by investigating the possibilities of using the organizational semiotic framework which is founded on sound and theoretical underpinnings to structure our discourse of some of these consequences. The semiotic framework will help us to draw deep insights from the phenomena under examination.