Louis Marbel, President, Interactive Design Labs, commented[1]:Is there such a thing as “meta-architecture”? This is a simple one – yes! Let me explain.
Essentially, an architecture description is a specification of the structure/form for organizing the function of system of interest in order to achieve its intended purpose effectively. The system of interest can be a building, bridge, enterprise, software system, application, enterprise/business data, etc.
Now a meta-architecture is a high-order system that operates on an architecture specification as an instance/object, and can validate and/or evaluate the specification to determine consistency and coherence.
This view of meta-architecture is consistent with predicate logic and concepts such as meta-types for software type systems, which are also specifications of the behavior of objects.My reply: You say “meta-architecture is a [high-order] system”. But you also say an “architecture [description] is a specification of … structure/form”.
“Structure/form” is not the same thing as a “system”. So doesn’t that violate the fundamental meaning of meta- … something that operates on other things of its own kind?
I have no doubt that there’s such a thing a meta-system. Should we think of (true) architecture as a system?
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[1] This series of point/counterpoint replies is a follow-up to my post “Meta Here. Meta There. Meta Everywhere?” (March 31, 2014), which generated a surprising amount of great discussion. (Thanks all!) Refer to: http://www.brsolutions.com/2014/03/31/meta-here-meta-there-meta-everywhere/The definition I’m using for meta- is from Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary [3b]:
3b: of a higher logical type – in nouns formed from names of disciplines and designating new but related disciplines such as can deal critically with the nature, structure, or behavior of the original ones *metalanguage* *metatheory* *metasystem*
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