Communities and Ancestors Associated with Egon Börger and ASM

In this paper, we discuss the community associated with Abstract State Machines (ASM), especially in the context of a Community of Practice (CoP), a social science concept, considering the development of ASM by its community of researchers and practitioners over time. We also consider the long-term historical context of the advisor tree of Egon Borger, the main promulgator of the ASM approach, which can be considered as multiple interrelated CoPs, distributed over several centuries. This includes notable mathematicians and philosophers among its number with some interesting links between the people involved. Despite most being active well before the inception of computer science, a number have been influential on the field.