Formal Methods for Modeling Socio-technical Innovation between Adversaries

Information security is often called an ´arms race´, but little is known about the co-evolutionary dynamics of innovation. To facilitate such research, we define two formal methods that can be executed by computational agents in a multi-agent system. First, we formalize the definition of capabilities and business models as a ´viable system´. We generalize it to encompass technological, sociological, and economic aspects of a system, which together comprise its capabilities. Second, we formalize the method of pattern language. This allows agents to generate and reason about alternative solutions. This expands the space of possibilities, and thus simulates a form of inventiveness. We conclude with an example of the methods applied to email spam and anti-spam defense.