Let's Bring System Dynamics Back to CS!
summary
Argues that outages come from feedback loops and coupling, not impossible states, and uses the AWS Kinesis 2019 outage as a concrete example of memory/map coupling via configuration change. Presents a tooling path: start with loopy or InsightMaker or Symlin for stock/flow sketches, then use a compiler that emits LLVM and SMT/Z3 to run bounded model checking and assertions. Claims Fault (pre‑alpha) already compiles stock/flow models to SMT so you can assert safety properties across composed subsystems.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:22What is System Dynamics
- 2:58Origins of System Dynamics
- 3:34Cybernetics
- 4:37System Dynamics
- 6:12Control Theory
- 6:54Primary Abstractions
- 7:47Modeling Systems
- 8:36Distributed Systems
- 9:41AWSkinesis
- 11:26Outages
- 12:06Configuration Change
- 13:39Stock Flow Models
- 15:19Resources
- 16:46Conventional Tools
- 17:59Fault Project
- 20:24Fault Demo
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