This paper is a condensation of
second part of a monograph called “Tangled Hierarchies” which has been cut down
a briefer version for publication. The first part of the paper concerned the
way in which tangled hierarchies might be used to model the design of systems,
and perhaps give us a way to show the consistency of domain specific design
languages like the Integral Software Engineering Methodology (ISEM) first
described in Wild Software Meta-systems[1].
In a subsequent paper “Reworking the Integral System Engineering Method Domain
Specific Languages” at CSER11 the original language was expanded from 750 to
1700 some statement templates based on research into General Schemas Theory in
the dissertation of the author Emergent Design[2].
This further part of the monograph looks again at the core of the realtime
minimal methods which is the State Machine along with its dual the Petrinet and
attempts to look at them in a new way based on the ideas of C.S. Peirce which
are used to re-understand the notion of the Turing Machine. In order to
understand Software in its essence we must return to well-worn concepts again
and again and attempt to comprehend them more deeply. There are perhaps more
secrets for them to give up and sometimes what seems so familiar and
commonplace have aspects that are not recognized due to the assumptions we make
about them that are unwarranted. C.S. Peirce was the greatest American
Philosopher, but is hardly known in many circles where is ideas on Pragmaticism
have not been fully appreciated. It could be that his work could give us a new
perspective on the Turing Machine and within it the state machine if we applied
the principles that he developed in his philosophy and semiotics to the Turing
Machine to comprehend it in a new way.
