The University of British Columbia

This paper describes a rule-based generic programming and simulation paradigm, for conventional hard computing and soft and innovative computing e.g., dynamical, genetic, nature inspired self-organized criticality and swarm intelligence. The computations are interpreted as the outcome arising out of deterministic, non-deterministic or stochastic interaction among elements in a multiset object space that includes the environment. These interactions are like chemical reactions and the evolution of the multiset can mimic the evolution of the complex system. Since the reaction rules are inherently parallel, any number of actions can be performed cooperatively or competitively among the subsets of elements. This paradigm permits carrying out parts or all of the computations independently in a distributed manner on distinct processors and is eminently suitable for cluster and grid computing.