Silvio Meira

Silvio Meira

This paper proposes a Unified Field Theory of Phygital Space, positing that contemporary reality is not a dichotomy of "online" and "offline," but a unified ontological manifold of irreducible but coupled dimensions. We formalize Phygital Space as a sheaf over a topological site composed of the Physical (U), Networked Digital (D), and Networked Social (S) dimensions, grounded in Informaticity -- the triune capacity to compute, communicate, and control -- and instantiated through Platforms. We develop a rigorous framework incorporating Finsler geometry to model the inherently asymmetric costs of cross-dimensional interaction. We define Ontological Mass (mu) as a tensor quantity encoding resistance to change across coupled dimensions, and introduce autopoietic dynamics to account for the endogenous agency of persons, algorithms, and social formations. We propose a non-equilibrium thermodynamic model where economic value is negentropy generated by platforms acting as dissipative structures. We introduce a theory of Temporal Shear formalized through Lie derivatives to explain the pathologies of modern time. The theory is empirically validated through a longitudinal analysis of the Chinese e-commerce ecosystem (1999-2025), modeling the dimensional trajectories of Taobao, JD . com, Pinduoduo, and Douyin across twenty-five years of evolution. We extend the framework to a post-human ecology of Synthetic Agents and articulate the normative implications for platform governance and human flourishing.

Silvio Meira, Vanilson Burégio, Paulo Borba et al.

Since the early days of computers and programs, the process and outcomes of software development has been a minefield plagued with problems and failures, as much as the complexity and complication of software and its development has increased by a thousandfold in half a century. Over the years, a number of theories, laws, best practices, manifestos and methodologies have emerged, with varied degrees of (un)success. Our experience as software engineers of complex and large-scale systems shows that those guidelines are bound to previously defined and often narrow scopes. Enough is enough. Nowadays, nearly every company is in the software and services business and everything is - or is managed by - software. It is about time, then, that the laws that govern our universe ought to be redefined. In this context, we discuss and present a set of universal laws that leads us to propose the first commandment of software engineering for all varieties of information systems.