Ontological Research Network
Research & Publications
20+ publications · 250+ citations · 15+ years of research at the intersection of complexity science, digital assets, and multi-agent systems.
Publication Index
The papers behind the map.
Full citation counts and publication history available on Google Scholar.
Blockchain & Digital Assets
The Emergence of Trust and Value in Public Blockchain Networks
IX International Conference on Complex Systems · 2018
Argues that trust and value in Bitcoin and Ethereum are emergent system-level properties arising from decentralized collective behavior.
The Evolution of Token Design
Consensys Blog · 2023
Introduces the Four Pillars of Emergent Systems for token design: decentralized decision-making, diversity, functional degeneracy, and stigmergy.
Systemic Risk in the Digital Assets Ecosystem
MITRE IR&D / U.S. Department of Treasury via Treasury FFRDC · 2024
Analyzes DeFi, DAOs, decentralized liquidity, and money markets through a systemic-risk lens using digital-asset case studies.
SPARC: Staking Performance And Reward Coopetition
arXiv · 2025
Presents a nonlinear staking reward framework designed to balance competition, cooperation, operator performance, and decentralization.
Hidden Centralization in Decentralized Finance
MITRE IR&D / U.S. Department of Treasury via Treasury FFRDC · 2025
Uses on-chain liquidity-provider network analysis to identify hidden centralization in decentralized finance.
The Signals Framework: A Semiotic Model for Emergent Participation in Decentralized Networks
SSRN · 2025
Defines signals as contextual, recursive expressions of participation, influence, and alignment in decentralized networks.
Securing Web3 and Winning the Battle for the Future of the Internet
MITRE Occasional Papers, Vol. 1, No. 4 · 2022
Argues the security of Web3 depends on a government-led national strategy: cybersecurity frameworks, public-private threat-sharing, and audit and compliance incentives.
Democratizing Technology: Web3 and the Future of the Internet
MITRE Occasional Papers, Vol. 1, No. 5 · 2022
Frames Web3 as a decentralized, democratic counterweight to the centralized, structurally authoritarian Web2 era, with policy steps on payments, identity, accessibility, and international coordination.
Complex Systems & Multi-Agent AI
Applying Complexity Science with ML, Agent-Based Models, and Game Engines: Towards Embodied Complex Systems Engineering
Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IX / Springer · 2018
Uses Unity, TensorFlow, PPO, and GPU-trained multi-agent reinforcement learning to study embodied complex systems.
Engineering Decentralized Enterprises: Emergent Mission Accomplishment without Centralized Command and Control
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas / Springer · 2021
Explores how decentralized enterprises can accomplish missions through agent-level rules rather than centralized command.
Applied Complexity Science: Enabling Emergence through Heuristics and Simulations
Emergent Behavior in Complex Systems Engineering / Wiley · 2018
A practical methodology for using heuristics and simulation to engineer emergence in complex systems.
Cyber Defense as a Complex Adaptive System
Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas / Springer · 2017
Applies agent-based modeling and complex adaptive systems concepts to cyber defense.
On the Sensitivity of Cyber Assessment Methodologies
Resilience and Hybrid Threats - NATO Science for Peace and Security Series (IOS Press) · 2019
Examines how cyber risk-assessment outcomes shift with the methodological assumptions baked into the assessment itself.
Epistemological Constraints when Evaluating Ontological Emergence with Computational CAS
Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IX · 2018
Examines the limits of evaluating whether emergence is observer-dependent or ontologically real in computational complex adaptive systems.
Embodied Cognition and Multi-Agent Behavioral Emergence
Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IX · 2018
Connects embodied cognition principles to emergent behavior in multi-agent systems.
Complex Systems Engineering in a Federal IT Environment
IEEE SysCon · 2015
Applies complex systems engineering concepts to enterprise-scale federal IT environments.
Foundational Research
Mathematical Model of the Dynamics of Psychotherapy
Cognitive Neurodynamics · 2011
Models therapist-client emotional interaction as coupled nonlinear dynamics using empirically coded psychotherapy sessions.
A Mathematical Model of Psychotherapy: An Investigation Using Dynamic Non-linear Equations
Psychotherapy Research · 2012
Extends the psychotherapy dynamics model through nonlinear equations and dynamical systems analysis.
Mathematical Model of the Dynamics of Psychotherapy: An Empirical Validation
Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Meeting · 2013
Validates the nonlinear-dynamics model of therapist-client interaction against empirically coded psychotherapy sessions.
Verifying a Mathematical Model of Psychotherapy
Nova Southeastern University - conference presentation · 2012
Presents verification work on the dynamical-systems model of the therapeutic relationship across coded sessions.
Affective Computing as Complex Systems Science
Procedia Computer Science · 2016
Frames affective computing as a complex systems problem involving interacting emotional, cognitive, and computational dynamics.