Process Algebra and Occam-π

The real world exhibits concurrency at all levels of scale – from atomic, through human, to astronomic. This concurrency is endemic. Central points of control do not remain stable for long. Most of the novel paradigms identified in the GC7 description paper hint at something stronger – namely that central points of control actively work against the logic and efficiency of whatever it is that is we are trying to control/model/understand. To overcome this, we expect concurrency to play a fundamental rôle in the design and implementation of systems, reflecting the reality of the environment in which they are embedded. This does not currently seem to be the case, where concurrency appears hard to deploy safely and effectively and is, therefore, turned to only when absolutely necessary (e.g. to meet some performance requirement). We need to break through this mind block.