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Another basic concept from the structure of the objectual philosophy is the notion of process. We have seen in the previous chapter that the objects are characterized (among others) by the invariance of the model properties, without excluding the possibility that some of the external properties of the objects to be quantitatively modified, such as the variation of the spatial position of a material object. Moreover, there is also the possibility that the model attributes to also vary, by turning an object into another, such as, for example, the nuclides transformation by means of radioactive disintegration. Even these variations of the objects attributes are the dependent (distributed) amounts in case of another distributions class, that is the class of processes.
Definition 4.1.1: The process is a variation’s distribution of the attributes values of some objects, on an ordered series, made-up from even magnitude variations of a support attribute.
Therefore, the class of processes is a sub-class of distributions, which is different due to the fact that the distributed attribute (dependent) is always the variation (change of value) of an attribute, and the support (independent variable) is a series (an ordered set) of intervals equals between themselves as an attribute amount (which, most of the times, is the temporal attribute, but it can also be spatial, frequential etc.) However, we have seen in chapter 2 that this kind of distributions, in which the variations of a property are assigned, are called derived distributions (of a primary distribution).
Comment 4.1.1: Here is the moment to observe that the things seem to be connected, and we should be able to understand the role played by the derived distributions. If the primary distribution is the one who represents a “rigid”, invariant distribution, for example the spatial position within a photo taken to some travelers which are at a certain moment in a railway station, and “frozen in time”, the same property (traveler’s position) seen with our own eyes, right from the spot, seems to be a set of motions (variations of the travelers position) distributed both in time and space. These motions are nothing else but processes, namely, distributions of position variations both on a spatial support (when we follow the traveler’s movements against the steady railway station bench-marks) and on a temporal support (when we follow the time evolution of these movements).
In the case indicated by the definition 4.1.1, the process is made-up from a set of other processes, either they are simultaneous or sequential (concatenated), its decomposition might be done based on the following criteria:
Number of objects which participate simultaneously to this process;
Number of variable attributes on each involved object;
A number of elementary (non-decomposable) concatenated processes.
Starting from the above-mentioned assertions, we may classify and denominate several classes of processes:
Definition 4.1.2: A collective process is a process in which a systemic set of objects is involved.
Definition 4.1.3: An individual process is a process in which a single object is involved.
Definition 4.1.4: A specific process is that process which allows only the variation of a single attribute during its unfolding.
Definition 4.1.5: A multiple process is the process which allows the simultaneous variations of more attributes during its unfolding.
Copyright © 2006-2011 Aurel Rusu. All rights reserved.
