Towards a Science of Modularity. Applied X is about the interface of Theory X and Medium Y. Applied physics, applied math, applied comp sci. Often such applied disciplines are looked down upon by their respective pure theory disciplines. But it is in the application of theory that the action takes place.
What is needed, though, is a general theory of "application." What is common to all types of applied theory? One thing that is clear is that the people applying the theory have to be dual experts: expert in the theory being applied and expert in the medium to which it is being applied. Of course, such a medium has its own theory, so such people must be experts in two theories. This leads to the concern that a jack of two trades is not a master of either.
But there is a third expertise involved in such cases: expertise in the theory of application itself, of interfaces generally. The various bodies of theories are simply a modularization of knowledge. Thus, like all modular systems, the modular framework that separates the disciplines and interfaces them, is subject to the same "laws of modularity." It is such "laws of modularity" that I hope to "discover" (uncover/reveal) and describe as a "Science of Modularity." (SoM) Or perhaps "Liminal Science." Google both of these terms.
It is such an SoM that Herbert Simon was pursuing in "Sciences of the Artificial." (SotA) SoM is a generalization of SotA, in that it studies both natural and artificial forms of modularity and modular evolution. SoM is really also the underlying unity among the various "General Systems Theories" out there. They focus mostly on the boxes, SoM focuses on the lines connecting the boxes.
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