State & Process

The state of something is its present characteristics. The process behind that something is how it got to be the way it is and how it might change to become something else. Knowing the state of something does not enable you to predict any changes. Knowing the processes behind that something enables you to predict the many states it might assume. One of the things that is new about computation is our ability to represent process in addition to state. Think of a freeway map of Los Angeles. It tells you where the roadways are and how they are connected to one another. It tells you the state of the highways. It tells you nothing about the processes of driving in crowded traffic, overheating coming up the Grapevine, the hazards of inclement weather, or construction zones. Imagine a different map of the freeways of Los Angeles. Imagine a map that knows how many cars are on which roads at every time of day, that knows whether it's been raining and for how long, that can calculate how slippery the asphault is, and how impatient each driver is to get home. That would be a better representation of the process of traffic on a highway system. That would be a map incorporating process, causation, and agency. This is where computation can take us in our mapmaking. How do we move from state to process in cartography? What were the role of maps in our society? How will that role change as we move more deeply into the age of computation?

What is causation? What is agency?

Process implies causation, that changes in one thing lead to changes in another, that changes in "A" causes effects in "B." Another way to talk about causation is to use the term agency. "What is the agency of change?" means "what are the causes of that change?" Agency is often used to convey the idea that the causes themselves are complex.

What is a multi-agent system?

A multi-agent system is a system which consists of many processes, of many complex linkages between causes and effects. An agent often refers to a complex bounded unit of processes, like a sentient entity, an artificial intelligence, a module of human intelligence, or a simplified representation of a human in a simulation.