Ndistinguishability

Abstract

ALLOWING THE details of lower-level components to be ignored-and interaction-allowing individual computing entities to cooperate-are key concepts in computer science. Many would argue that they play a crucial role in the success of computing: abstraction allows separate layers of the computing stack to be improved orthogonally, whereas interaction allows the abundance of computing power to be harnessed. This comes at a significant cost: each component of a computer system has limited knowledge about the state of other components. This happens either by choice, in the case of abstraction, or out of necessity, in the case of interaction. From the perspective of an individual component, all other components, either other layers within the same computing entity or other computing entities