Complex Adaptive Systems and Trust
A complex adaptive system is a group of entities that communicate and work together to perform a task with an agreed intent. Mutual trust for the transfer of value (and money) is an example of the use of the approach. Mutual trust does not need to identify entities. Instead, it can allow entities to have a high degree of confidence that the other entities with whom they communicate are whom they expect and have the attributes they expect.
Trust comes from knowing the success of previous transactions and from the likelihood of detecting and correcting breaches of trust when they occur. If previous transactions have succeeded, then it is likely the next transaction with the entity will succeed, providing the environment has remained the same. Trust is enhanced if previously failed transactions are detected, corrected and become part of the shared memory.
For example, in payments, the environment includes whether the buyer has the money available from other transactions to pay the amount and whether the seller has the goods or services to deliver the value. A buyer can prove they have the money by asking the seller to check with a bank that money is available. A seller can prove they have the goods by asking the buyer to check the supplier’s inventory with the supplier’s independent supply chain or a trusted accounting section.
The Complex Adaptive System operates by entities having ways for other entities to confirm their claims. A mechanism to achieve this is for each entity to keep a memory of their previous transactions that only they can access and for the entity with whom they interact to have an exact copy of the interaction.
The interaction consists of the reason for the interaction, the expected outcome and the actual result as expressed by the data transferred.
Building Complex Adaptive Information Systems
To build a Complex Adaptive Information System, each entity must have the ability to store a memory of their relevant transactions and to provide a trusted way for the relevant parts of transactions to be delivered to a third party. This is achieved through a transaction registration process.
Transactions are typically carried out with API calls to an application, and the memory consists of the linked memory elements of the registered API calls that a person uses. Application developers register their API calls and link the data elements to other registered API calls. Entities that use the application register that they are willing to share the memory of the transaction with another provided the other party consents. So a merchant agrees to use the payment memory system, and both merchant and customer agree to use a memory system.
Registration Apps
There can be many Registration Apps provided they carry out the same functions. However, the Registration App itself must be trusted and is achieved by each instance of the App being an exact clone. The Complex Adaptive system Apps operate the same way. Different Apps used independently by parties for a given purpose are all clones. There can be payment Apps, Identity Apps, proof of possession Apps, information Apps, News Apps, Location Apps, Loan Apps, Social Media Apps, etc.
Connecting Complex Adaptive Systems
The Registration process itself is a Complex Adaptive System and uses a Registration App. Each Complex Adaptive System is an entity in its own right and we can get the Apps to work together for the common good. No one system on its own will solve societies problems but people working together collaboratively using the Apps can solve the big problems of sustainability, equity, human rights, and natures rights.
