MESS : Implementing General Semantics in Software Architecture
MOUTOUSSAMY, Joël · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2025
We present MESS (Medium Elementum Spatium Semantic) a Meta-Architectural Semantic System that directly implements Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics principles as foundational design elements. Originally developed in the early 2010s for the MEDIUM project addressing conceptual and semantic challenges in Virtual Environments (VE), MESS demonstrates how philosophical rigor can yield novel architectural solutions. Unlike conventional frameworks that provide structure without inherent meaning, MESS embeds semantic richness through eight fundamental stereotypes—seven for structure (what entities are: Medium, Elementum, Nexus, Spatium, Indexum, Ostium, Conexus) and one for behavior (what entities do: Nucleus)—completing the architectural formula Architecture = F(Structure, Behavior). These stereotypes are organized by an Abstract Medium Tree (AMT), combining semantics (meaning) and syntax (structure) to enable meaningful modeling of any conceptual domain. We argue that architecture emerges indivisibly from structure and behavior, with Nucleus embodying Korzybski's insight that reality is process, not entity. Complementary tools (Situm, Signum, Symbalum) extend coverage of General Semantics principles including indexation consciousness and symbol grounding. Fifteen years after its conceptual foundations were established and reviewed favorably by interdisciplinary experts, we revisit these ideas to demonstrate their continued relevance—including unexpected applicability to modern cognitive agent architectures—and invite the community to engage with philosophy-driven software design. Keywords : General Semantics, software architecture, semantic modeling, Alfred Korzybski, A.E. Van Vogt, process ontology, virtual environments, conceptual frameworks, stereotypes, Handle-based architecture, non-identity, map-territory distinction, Nucleus, behavior-driven architecture, cognitive agents, neuro-symbolic integration, indexation consciousness, symbol grounding, Linda tuple spaces, entity-component systems