Chilam – Laboratory for the Simulation of Complex Adaptive Systems

Mission

• To provide virtual data-based laboratories that enable research at the forefront of human knowledge on a range of problems of high social impact
• To provide open access predictive modelling engines available as Platform-as-a-Service to a wide variety of stakeholders and decision makers as well as the general public
• To promote evidence-based decision making by utilising the best of human intelligence and artificial intelligence

Vision

• To be a center of innovation and excellence in the use of big, deep data and the application of Artificial Intelligence to global problems in health, social welfare and sustainability.

Why Chilam?

Just as the world is a Complex Adaptive System, and every living organism within it, so is every major human problem – from COVID19 and other pandemics, to poverty, violence, climate change and fake news. They are all problems that are consequences of human decision making.

As well as being challenges for the present and future welfare of humanity they also present huge challenges for basic science and the incorporation of scientific knowledge into our decision making. Unfortunately, the major triumphs of science have been a result of our ability to understand, quantify and predict the relatively “simple” phenomena that characterise physics and chemistry. In this context, the world is viewed as a “machine”. Our decision making process however, is far from being machine like.

The success of physics and chemistry is linked to the fact that physical systems are phenomenologically “poor” – you don’t need much data to describe the important aspects of a physical system. A laboratory in Paris in 1778 would measure exactly the same properties of oxygen as one in Mexico City in 2020. Decisions made in 1778 however, are not the same as the ones being made in 2020, but in both cases our decisions and consequent actions depend on an unimaginable number of inputs.

It is the sciences of complexity – such as biology, psychology and sociology – that are linked to how humans behave and make decisions. Until recently however, the amount of data available to understand our behaviour was not much different to that available for physical systems. The Data Revolution of the last few decades is radically changing that. Technological developments are allowing us to collect data in quantities that were unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. This is vital because the decisions we make change from one place to another and from one moment to another.

In summary: i) all the world’s major problems are consequences of our decision making. ii) We make decisions that are based on predictions about the relative benefits of our decisions that come from our mental model of the world. iii) Although our mental model is based on data it does not reflect reality. iv) Science aided by the Data Revolution allows us to have a faithful model of the world. v) By confronting, comparing and contrasting the mental models of stakeholders and decision makers with the real world we can make better, evidence-based decisions.