RE: Processes and Causality

["John F. Sowa" <sowa@bestweb.net>]

Chris and Matthew,

I pushed the sentences around and changed the word "is" to
"corresponds to".  That makes it a bit clearer:

   In summary, the fundamental laws that govern physical processes are
   stated in terms of a space-time continuum, but they can be approximated
   to any desired degree of accuracy by discrete processes represented
   by directed acyclic graphs.  The time coordinate of the continuum
   corresponds to the set of all possible measurements by a clock, and the
   spatial coordinates correspond to the set of all possible measurements
   by a rigid ruler.  Causality, in David Hume's words, is the cement of
   the universe that keeps these measurements consistent and repeatable.
   It ensures that the ticks of a clock are regular and that a rigid ruler
   will give reliable measurements even after it is moved.  This model is
   general enough to accommodate the major theories of time, processes,
   and causality used in logic and artificial intelligence:

For the purpose of computation, there is no difference between "is"
and "corresponds to", but it gives the philosophers more wiggle room.

John Sowa