Complex Adaptive Dynamics Computer-Aided Design
= cadCAD is an open-source modeling framework and scientific computing library to enable safer, better designs of complex, adaptive systems, and faster system iteration cycles required for business decision makers
URL = http://cadcad.org [1]
Description
By Michael Zargham and Jonathan Gabler, (Blockscience):
"cadCAD is capable of modeling systems with multiple levels of abstraction from micro-level Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) to macro-level System Dynamics (SD), supporting discrete, continuous, and hybrid dynamic behavior. This becomes invaluable when integrating cyber-physical systems with socio-economic systems and financial models of value networks. We can start with simple models and progressively build them into more complex models while keeping documentation of explicit assumptions in all dimensions and layers.
cadCAD can simulate any system that can be formally characterized as a generalized differential equation or differential game.
...
In this modeling framework, systems are treated as state-based models and defined through a set of endogenous and exogenous state variables which are updated through mechanisms and environmental processes, respectively. Behavioral models, which may be deterministic or stochastic, agent level or population level, provide the impetus for the evolution of the system, constrained only by the legal action space of the mechanisms. Blockchain-enabled economic systems, for example, are mapped into this formal modeling framework in an academic paper published in the proceedings of the International Conference on Complex Systems. In the real world, uncertainty and adversarial behavior create unintended consequences that compound uncertainty over time. A well-engineered system design not only drives the system toward a desired outcome, but also keeps a tight envelope of certainty around that outcome. Computer-aided design is required to identify and validate the respective mechanism and policy designs, because the testing procedures typically require a large number of repeated experiments. The cadCAD modeling framework and simulation engine are designed to handle these experiments at any level of system abstraction.
cadCAD seamlessly integrates with open-source data science computing stack and enables continuous improvement with real-world feedback cadCAD is built as part of the scientific Python ecosystem. Python is the programming language used by most data scientists globally and provides extensive scientific computation and visualization libraries. By adding generalized dynamical systems and event-based differential games modeling to the open-source scientific Python stack, cadCAD unlocks powerful network effects for system designers." (https://medium.com/block-science/cadcad-filling-a-critical-gap-in-open-source-data-science-fcd0d3faa8ed)
Examples
- "The Commons Stack project spear-headed by the Giveth.io team is making heavy use of cadCAD to design and validate the various system components of their digital infrastructure for commons-based peer production;
- The team at Freeelio is using cadCAD to model cyber-physical systems of clean energy access, to optimize for impact along social, environmental and economic returns given a subscriber’s risk/reward preferences, and to create a multidimensional financial model to determine the governance and token model of the funding and deployment network for solar smart microgrids across the globe (multi-sided market model);"