Journal article 1051 views
The dynamics of belief: continuously monitoring and visualising complex systems
Edwin Beggs 
,
John Tucker
,
John Tucker
Formal Aspects of Computing
Swansea University Authors:
Edwin Beggs , John Tucker
Full text not available from this repository: check for access using links below.
DOI (Published version): 10.1145/3812540
Abstract
We develop a theoretical framework for thinking about systems in complex human contexts and the problem of explaining their behaviour. Structurally, systems are made of modular and hierarchical components that we abstract in a general system model using notions of modes and mode transitions. A mode...
| Published in: | Formal Aspects of Computing |
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| ISSN: | 0934-5043 1433-299X |
| Published: |
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
2026
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65454 |
| Abstract: |
We develop a theoretical framework for thinking about systems in complex human contexts and the problem of explaining their behaviour. Structurally, systems are made of modular and hierarchical components that we abstract in a general system model using notions of modes and mode transitions. A mode is an independent component of the system with its own objectives, monitoring data, and algorithms. The behaviour of a mode, including its transitions to other modes, is determined by functions that interpret each mode’s monitoring data in the light of its objectives and algorithms. We show how these belief functions can help explain system behaviour by quantifying and visualising their evaluation of monitoring data as trajectories in higher-dimensional geometric spaces. These ideas are formalised mathematically by abstract and geometric simplicial complexes. We offer three techniques—a framework for design heuristics, a general system theory based on modes, and a geometric visualisation—and apply them in examples of three types of human-centred systems. |
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| Keywords: |
explainable systems, accountable systems, hierarchical systems, modes, mode transitions, belief functions, simplicial complex, human-centred systems, topological semantics |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |