Middleware is an increasingly used buzzword -but what exactly does it mean? There have been many interpretations of the term ‘middleware’ since it was first coined around a decade ago. In the past, popular interpretations have usually been concerned with remote database access software and transactional systems. More recently, the term has most often been applied to distributed systems platform...

Emergence—macro-level effects from micro-level causes—is at the heart of the conflict between reductionism and functionalism. How can there be autonomous higher level laws of nature (the functionalist claim) if everything can be reduced to the fundamental forces of physics (the reductionist position)? We cut through this debate by applying a computer science lens to the way we view nature. We c...