Developer of the Refal programming language, the theory of metasystem transitions, and the notion of supercompilation, Turchin made foundational contributions to computer science and cybernetics.
The philosophical core of Turchin's scientific work was the concept of the metasystem transition, which denoted the evolutionary process through which higher levels of control emerge in system structure and function.
Turchin used this concept to provide a global theory of evolution and a coherent social systems theory, to develop a complete cybernetics philosophical and ethical system, and to build a constructivist foundation for mathematics.
Using the REFAL language, he implemented a Supercompiler, a unified method for program transformation and optimization based on a metasystem transition.
