*1.1. Preliminary Notes on the Involved Computational Social Science (CSS) Perspective*

Even though the present article essentially describes the computer-science basis for a new digital-twin modelling and simulation approach, this work aims to contribute to the broader framework of computational social science (CSS). This designation is certainly at risk of being misunderstood as a branch of social science only. Quite the contrary, however, CSS is an emerging interdisciplinary field of research of growing importance at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and social science. On the one hand, CSS includes a well-known strong formal modelling/simulation branch on artificial societies [1]. On the other hand, it includes the trend towards a dynamically increasing field of automated collection of digital-trace and text data on the Internet that goes hand in hand with an equally important rise of widespread applications of machine learning techniques in society [2]. Though both CSS branches undoubtedly offer valuable scientific insights on their own right, the link between the modelling/simulation branch, on the one hand, and the social-research and social-media research branch [3] respectively, on the other hand, currently remains a quite challenging task still.
