An integrated approach for the validation of emergence in component-based simulation models

Abstract

Emergent properties are becoming increasingly important as systems grow in size and complexity. Despite recent research interest in understanding emergent behavior, practical approaches remain a key challenge. This paper proposes an integrated approach for the identification of emergence with two perspectives. A post-mortem emergence analysis requires a-priori knowledge about emergence and can identify the causes of emergent behavior. In contrast, a live analysis, in which emergence is identified as it happens, does not require prior knowledge and relies on a more rigorous definition of individual model components in terms of what they achieve, rather than how. Our proposed approach integrates reconstructability analysis in the validation of emergence included in our proposed component-based model development life-cycle. © 2012 IEEE.