I want to begin with the intelligent environment exactly means. In class, we first made a comparison between intelligence and automation. In general, automation is related to the ability of something to operate automatically, or without force from the outside environment. Intelligence, is certainly different from automation since it usually can perceive the outside environment and reaction to changes in the environment. However, personally, I don’t think an intelligent environment is completely irrelevant to automation, because to perceive and react, there must be considerable calculation and/or coordination between different components, and such calculation and/or coordination should be able to operate automatically.

Contextual awareness and Cybernetics are also indispensable for an intelligent enviornment. Contextual awareness refers to being aware of ( or understanding) the context so that the system can react to certain signals. After understansding the context, with the knowledge of cynernetics, the system is able to make feedback and finally do the reaction. It is also possible to produce feedback based on the existing feedback, to complete second-order (mabe also possibly to have multi-order?) cybernetics.

From a personal perspective, I think an intelligent environment should also provide a qualified user experience, especially when utilizing an intelligent environment in artwork or use it in daily life. In an artwork, an intelligent environment should enhance the interacting process, providing the experiences that best fit the aim of the artwork, and help the audience to better understand it. In daily life, it is important to help people live in a more effective, convenient, or in general,  smarter ligestyle. 

Concluding from the above paragraphs, I think an ideal intelligent environment that I would like to approach should be like this: (1) It is smart enough to understand the user’s situation and react automatically, quickly and precisely according to the user’s needs; (2) It can improve the user’s experience and provide a real enjoyable experience.