Shaping influence and influencing shaping: A computational red teaming trust-based swarm intelligence model

Abstract

Sociotechnical systems are complex systems, where nonlin-ear interaction among different players can obscure causal relationships. The absence of mechanisms to help us understand how to create a change in the system makes it hard to manage these systems. Influencing and shaping are social operators acting on sociotechni-cal systems to design a change. However, the two operators are usually discussed in an ad-hoc manner, without proper guiding models and met-rics which assist in adopting these models successfully. Moreover, both social operators rely on accurate understanding of the concept of trust. Without such understanding, neither of these operators can create the required level to create a change in a desirable direction. In this paper, we define these concepts in a concise manner suitable for modelling the concepts and understanding their dynamics. We then introduce a model for influencing and shaping and use Computational Red Teaming principles to design and demonstrate how this model oper-ates. We validate the results computationally through a simulation envi-ronment to show social influencing and shaping in an artificial society.