On representing processes - question on methodologies

From: dan michaels (feedbackdroids_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/28/04 

Date: 28 Jun 2004 11:55:18 -0700

This is a question aimed mainly at people who are lately in school,
and others who might be familiar with latest-greatest techniques that
have been developed for "representing processes".

I've been reading a book called "Our Own Metaphor" (1972), by Mary
Catherine Bateson, containing notes from a conference on "Effects of
Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation", that was held in Austria in
1968. 36 years ago [!!!, :)]. Participants included Gregory Bateson,
Fred Attneave, Barry Commoner, Bert Kaplan, Warren McCulloch, Gordon
Pask, etc.

In one chapter, Anatol Holt describes issues involved in representing
"processes", as distinct from describing logic machines, which you can
do using state machine theory, etc. The 2 examples Holt gives for use
in describing processes are: (1) occurrence graphs/diagrams, and (2)
Petri nets. In occurrence graphs, the arrows represent stable
conditions, and the points/nodes represent events that initiate new
conditions. Essentially new conditions are initiated by various
precursor conditions impinging on a common node. Petri nets are
similar, and I assume most people are familiar with them. As I see it,
both of these are more or less a "complementary" representational
scheme to state machines.

Basically, I was wondering what other techniques might be popular with
people working on such problems [of dealing with processes] today -
besides, multi-dimensional state variable/systems theory or complexity
theory. I imagine there are specific types of graph theory/etc applied
to these situations.