Time and Information in Sequential and Concurrent Computation

Time can be understood as dual to information in extant models of both sequential and concurrent computation. The basis for this duality is phase space, coordinatized by time and information, whose axes are oriented respectively horizontally and vertically. We fit various basic phenomena of computation, and of behavior in general, to the phase space perspective. The extant two-dimensional logics of sequential behavior, the van Glabbeek map of branching time and true concurrency, event-state duality and schedule-automaton duality, and Chu spaces, all fit the phase space perspective well, in every case confirming our choice of orientation.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1994
• Where: TPPP
• Authors: Vaughan R. Pratt
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Extant Two-dimensional Logics, Phase Space, Phase Space Perspective, TPPP 1994