Autonomous cognitive systems in real-world environments: less control, more flexibility and better interaction

In October 2011, the "2nd European Network for Cognitive Systems, Robotics and Interaction", EUCogII, held its meeting in Groningen on "Autonomous activity in real-world environments", organized by Tjeerd Andringa and myself. This is a brief personal report on why we thought autonomy in real-world environments is central for cognitive systems research and what I think I learned about it. The theses that crystallized are that (a) autonomy is a relative property and a matter of degree, (b) increasing autonomy of an artificial system from its makers and users is a necessary feature of increasingly intelligent systems that can deal with the real world and (c) more such autonomy means less control but at the same time improved interaction with the system.