Agent  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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An agent is one who acts for, or in the place of, another, by authority from him; one entrusted with the business of another.

In philosophy

• An entity which is capable of Action (philosophy)
• Agency (philosophy)

In sociology

• A social "agent"; See Structure and agency

In law enforcement

• Agent, a rank in some police agencies.
• Special agent, title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government
• Secret agent, spy involved in espionage.

In law

• Agent (law), in commercial law, is a person who is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the principal) to create a legal relationship with a third party
  • C & F Agent abbreviated from Clearing and Forwarding Agent (India).
  • Election agent, person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign (UK)
  • Free agent, sports player whose contract with a team has expired
  • Literary agent, person who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers
  • Press agent, professional publicist who acts on behalf of his or her client on all matters involving public relations
  • Sports agent, person who procures and negotiates employment and endorsement deals for a player or coach
  • Talent agent or booking agent, person who finds jobs for actors, musicians and models, etc., in various entertainment businesses
  • Foreign agent, person representing the interests of foreign powers, mandated by the Foreign Agents Registration Act to be identified to the American public
  • Political Agent (Political Resident), an official diplomatic position in British Empire
  • Patent agent or patent attorney, person who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice
  • Real estate agent or real estate broker, person who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate
  • Travel agent, person who works on behalf of a travel agency
  • Tuition agent, person who works on behalf of a tuition agency, specializing in introducing tutors to students requiring help in the academic area
  • Yacht agent or yacht broker, specialist who acts as a representative for the sale of a yacht or boat

In economics

• Agent (economics), actor and decision maker in a model
  • Homo economicus, concept in some economic theories of humans as rational and broadly self-interested actors
  • As discussed by economists as the principal–agent problem, agent means anyone supposed to act in the interests of the principal, especially insofar as the actions of the agent cannot be completely monitored by the principal. In this sense agent includes such diverse and common roles as auto mechanic, a doctor, a lawyer, an investment advisor, any fiduciary, a contractor, any employee (from the point of view of the employer), and a political representative in a democracy.
• Agent-based computational economics, computational study of economic processes modeled as dynamic systems of interacting agents
• Rational agent, entity which has clear preferences, models uncertainty via expected values, and always chooses to perform the action that results in the optimal outcome for itself from among all feasible actions
• Representative agent, refers to the typical decision-maker of a certain type

In medicine

• A pharmacological agent is a chemical substance with pharmacological or biological activity, i.e., a pharmaceutical drug

In chemistry and warfare

• Agent Orange, code name for an herbicide and defoliant, a herbicidal warfare program undertaken by the British military during the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. military during the Vietnam War
• Biological agent, infectious disease or toxin that can be used in bioterrorism or biological warfare
• Chemical warfare, involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons to kill, injure, or incapacitate humans
  • Blister agent or vesicant, chemical compound that causes severe skin, eye and mucosal pain and irritation
  • Blood agent or cyanogen agent, chemical compound carried by the blood for distribution throughout the body
  • Incapacitating agent, agent that produces temporary physiological or mental effects, or both, which will render individuals incapable of concerted effort in the performance of their assigned duties
  • Nerve agent or nerve gases, class of phosphorus-containing organic chemicals (organophosphates) that disrupt the mechanism by which nerves transfer messages to organs
  • Pulmonary agent or choking agent, chemical weapon agent designed to impede a victim's ability to breathe
  • Riot control agent, less-lethal lachrymatory agents used for riot control

In linguistics

• Agent (grammar), the participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation; also the name of the thematic role (also known as the thematic relation)
• Agent noun (or nomen agentis), word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action

In computer science and artificial intelligence

• Agent architecture, blueprint for software agents and intelligent control systems, depicting the arrangement of components
• Agent-based model, computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous individuals with a view to assessing their effects on the system as a whole
• Intelligent agent, autonomous entity which observes and acts upon an environment and directs its activity towards achieving goals
• Software agent, piece of software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency
  • Forté Agent, email and Usenet news client used on the Windows operating system
  • User agent, the client application used with a particular network protocol

In culture and entertainment

• James Bond, a famous secret agent, fictional character by Ian Fleming.
• Agent 13, The Midnight Avenger was the name of a novel series based on Top Secret/S.I. setting published by TSR, Inc. from 1986 to 1988. There were three stories in the series, following the actions of the protagonist referred to in the novels only as Agent 13, or simply, The Agent. It was written by Flint Dille and David Marconi.
• Agent 47, fictional character and protagonist in the Hitman video-game series.
• Agent 86 and Agent 99, fictional characters in the TV-series Get Smart and the 2008 Get Smart spy-fi comedy film based on the series.
• Agent 009, an Indian Bollywood film.
• Agent 212, name of a humorous Belgian comic about a large police officer.
• Agent (The Matrix), group of characters in the series.
• Agent (video game), currently in development by Rockstar North for the PlayStation 3.
• The Agent (film), 1922 film featuring Oliver Hardy.
• Secret Agent (1936 film), British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
• Agent, version of The Mole (TV series) that aired in Poland on TVN.
• The Agents, superhuman characters in Seven Samurai 20XX.
• The Agents, an Australian post-punk band led by James Griffin.
• The Agents (English band), a Bristol post-punk band.
• Agents (Finnish band), a Finnish schlager/rock'n'roll band.
• Agent P, A secret agent name for Perry the Platypus from Disney's Phineas & Ferb

See also

• Agent, a title or honorific, such as "Agent Smith"
• Bot (disambiguation)
• Operative (disambiguation)
• Personoid
• Robot