Research Outputs:
How did the ideas evolve beyond the lifetime of the funded project?

Scientific research is often evaluated through its tangible outputs—conference presentations, publications, software, datasets, and technical reports. These products document what was accomplished during a project's funded lifetime and provide the formal record of its scholarly contributions.

Viewed collectively, however, research outputs often reveal something more enduring. They capture the gradual evolution of ideas, showing how an initial concept matures, adapts, and finds application in increasingly diverse domains.

This project began by exploring fictional epidemiological events as computational laboratories for understanding contagion-like processes. As the work progressed, the same mathematical framework was applied to problems in public health, generalized epidemiological modeling, and computational social science. Looking back, the sequence of outputs reveals not merely a collection of independent studies, but the progressive abstraction of a single computational framework capable of describing a broad class of recoverable human systems.

The outputs presented below therefore document both the historical accomplishments of the project and the intellectual trajectory through which its ideas expanded.

Throughout the funded period, the project was presented at conferences spanning mathematics, biology, interdisciplinary science, and regional studies. Each presentation explored a different application of the same underlying computational ideas, illustrating the flexibility and transferability of the proposed modeling framework.

Human–Borg Dynamics During a Cybernetic Alien Invasion

2017 Mathematical Society of the Philippines–CALABARZON Annual Regional Convention (MSPC 2017)
First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities, Tanauan City, Batangas
23 September 2017

This presentation introduced fictional cybernetic assimilation as a computational laboratory for studying contagion dynamics and complex adaptive systems.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.3198v1

Ang Epidemyolohiya ng Aswang: Mga Modelong Matematikal at Computer Simulation

10th UPLB CAS Student–Faculty Research Conference (SFRC 2017)
University of the Philippines Los Baños
20 November 2017

This presentation demonstrated how Philippine folklore can serve as a culturally familiar narrative for communicating mathematical epidemiology to broader audiences.

An Epidemiological Model of Drug Addiction

2017 MSP Cebu Research Congress and Convention
Cebu City
8–9 December 2017

The framework was extended to model a real-world public health phenomenon, illustrating how compartment-based models can describe non-infectious yet contagion-like human behaviors.

Generalizing S–I–R for Non-terminal Epidemiological Events

53rd BIOTA Annual National Convention and Scientific Sessions (BIOTA 2018)
University of San Agustin, Iloilo City
5–7 April 2018

This work shifted the emphasis from individual applications toward a generalized mathematical formulation for recoverable epidemiological systems.

Modeling Corruption as a Contagious Disease

First National Conference on Southern Luzon Studies (NCSLS 2018)
University of the Philippines Los Baños
18–20 July 2018

The framework was applied to institutional and societal processes, illustrating its relevance to computational social science and the study of complex human systems.

DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/23RZU

The project was also shared through invited lectures and seminars, providing opportunities to engage students and researchers from different disciplines. These presentations emphasized not only the mathematical models themselves but also the computational thinking that underlies scientific modeling.

Interaction Dynamics Between Humans and Aliens During a Cybernetic Alien Attack

UP Baguio Breakthroughs in Mathematics Lecture Series
First Knowledge Festival
University of the Philippines Baguio
24–25 November 2017

An invited lecture discussing mathematical modeling, computational simulation, and systems thinking using fictional alien invasion as a scientific narrative.

Humans vs. Aliens: A Narrative of How Humans Can Defeat the Parasitic Alien Cyborgs Using Computer Science

UP Cebu Seminar
University of the Philippines Cebu
7 December 2017

An invited seminar illustrating how computer science, mathematical modeling, and simulation can be communicated through engaging fictional narratives.

Viewed chronologically, these presentations reveal an intellectual progression that extends beyond their individual topics.

The research began with fictional epidemiological scenarios inspired by cybernetic alien invasions and Philippine folklore. These narratives provided accessible computational laboratories in which new mathematical ideas could be developed and explored. As confidence in the framework grew, the same computational structure was successfully applied to drug addiction, generalized epidemiological systems, and corruption, demonstrating that the underlying mathematics transcended the specific narratives from which it originated.

This progression reflects an important characteristic of scientific abstraction. As understanding deepens, models become less dependent on their original applications and increasingly capable of describing a broader range of phenomena. The project therefore evolved not by abandoning its initial inspiration, but by progressively revealing the generality of its computational framework.

The following reflections were developed during the preparation of this Narrative Scholarly Archive. They represent retrospective interpretations of the completed body of work and are presented to encourage future exploration rather than to revise the historical record of the project.

Emerging Insight 1 — The Symmetry of Recoverable Human Systems

Looking back at the complete SCARED framework reveals a conceptual symmetry that was not explicitly articulated during the funded project.

The left side of the framework describes the progressive loss of human agency through capture and assimilation.

The right side describes its progressive restoration through rescue, education, and ultimately defiance.

Viewed from this perspective, the framework becomes more than a contagion model. It becomes a computational representation of recoverable human systems, capable of describing how complex systems deteriorate and how they recover.

Emerging Insight 2 — Progressive Scientific Abstraction

Each successive model introduces exactly one new scientific hypothesis.

Rather than increasing complexity for its own sake, the evolution from SAss to SCARED demonstrates how mathematical models mature through the gradual refinement of scientific ideas. Every new compartment represents a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

Emerging Insight 3 — Computational Thinking in Scientific Modeling

The development of the framework illustrates several fundamental principles of computational thinking, including decomposition, abstraction, incremental refinement, feedback, and emergence.

The sequence of models therefore documents not only a research outcome but also a reproducible process for constructing computational models of complex systems.

Emerging Insight 4 — From Fiction to General Theory

Perhaps the most unexpected outcome of the project is the realization that fictional epidemiological narratives were never the destination of the research.

They were the laboratory.

By providing controlled, imaginative scenarios, fiction enabled the exploration of mathematical principles that later proved applicable to public health, sociology, organizational systems, and other domains involving recoverable human systems.

The fictional narratives therefore served not as an end in themselves, but as a bridge toward broader scientific abstraction.

Research projects formally conclude when funding periods end, publications are completed, and reports are submitted. Scientific ideas, however, rarely end at the same time.

Looking back at this body of work reveals relationships and interpretations that were not explicitly recognized during the original research but emerge naturally through reflection. These perspectives suggest that the framework developed here extends beyond fictional epidemiological events and may contribute to future studies in computational social science, systems science, scientific computing, development communication, and science education.

This Narrative Scholarly Archive therefore preserves not only the historical record of a completed research project, but also the continuing evolution of its ideas. It is offered as an invitation to future students, researchers, and educators to reinterpret, extend, and apply these concepts in ways that continue the scientific conversation.