To build on what you're saying, one could argue that functional programming also is a way to model the world; that is, if you're model of the world is that of a

To build on what you're saying, one could argue that functional programming also is a way to model the world; that is, if you're model of the world is that of a series of snapshots of instants, as opposed to mutable stateful objects. Abelson from the SICP lectures argues this in this lecture: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video-lectures/6a-streams-part-1/ http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...