DARPA’s Big Mechanism program will have three phases and initially focus on studying the molecular pathways that are responsible for cancer development and growth, the agency said Thursday.
âHaving big data about complicated economic, biological, neural and climate systems isn’t the same as understanding the dense webs of causes and effectsâwhat we call the big mechanismsâin these systems,â said Paul Cohen, a DARPA program manager.
The program’s goal is to make use of data from every research publication for an automated public causal analysis of complex incidents.
âCausal models are needed to predict how systems will respond to interventionsâhow a patient or an economy will respond to a drug or a new taxâand to understand why systems behave as they do,â Cohen added.
âAnd we can propose new experiments, suggest interventions and advance our knowledge more rapidly.â