[Jtsummers]

> While the Smalltalk model holds a large number of objects in a single ‘space’ - we could imagine a system where each object has internal space which holds a cluster of inner objects, and so on. This introduces a recursive aspect in the design.

Kind of reminds me of tuple spaces. Which is a neat idea. From the system vs program perspective, your system is running on this tuple space. Programs are individual actors capable of accessing the tuple space and triggered via some mechanism (like being notified if a certain type of data is posted or periodically executing a query and running if they receive a response). You can then grow the system by allowing tuples of different types to accumulate, and developing or extending actors in how they process this store.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuple_space