Project Summary of Concepts and Vocabulary That Require Representational Strategies:

These concepts have been culled from sources that address time and temporal relations. They provide a basic framework for our project, and provide the intellectual foundation for the graphical system we are trying to establish. Any system of time modelling will need templates and metaphors that express:

Temporal Ontologies: Universal Time (Absolutist) vs. Logic of Temporal Relations (Relativistic)
(Example: Universal time, like universal space, is conceived of as infinite, unbounded, and of encompassing dimension. Relative time, like relative space, is proper to a specific system and exists in relation to universal time, but independent of it. An example with respect to space: Earth follows an orbit around the sun, the solar system moves through the galaxy, each of these is conceived to exist within the infinite universe. Meanwhile, the space within a room is daily reconfigured by its occupants. The space in the room is a relative space that exists in relation to, but independent of, the universal space. Likewise, the gestation period for mammalian offspring is a fixed period, independent of the moment of its origin in universal time. The cycle comes into being, maturity, and completion regardless of the point in the linear, irreversible order of time in which it originates. See: Christensen, Space/Time book.)
Time Primitives for Time Lines, Planes, Spaces
- points: discrete or interpoloated
  The Dividing Instant Problem is a special case of the point in time, and refers to the idea that an instant that exists at the juncture of one interval and another is the instant that "divides" the two and thus belongs to both simultaneously.
- intervals: bounded or unbounded (indeterminate origin, termination, duration)
- events
  - absolutist: time ontologically precedes events
  - relativist: events precede time ontologically
Time Topologies for Time Lines, Planes, Spaces
- Order relations:
  - Total:
    - linear
    - periodic (closed/open)
  - Partial: branching (determinate past, open future)
- Non-ordered relations:
  - Space-time: matrix/field
  - Minkowski - lightcone of events
Time Metrics: Reference Frames, Units, and Granularities for Time Lines, Planes, Spaces
- Extrinsic: Extrinsic time frames reference conventional systems of time keeping
  - Astronomical/sidereal (changes of state/position)
  - Geological (changes of state)
  - Physical (1/2 life of elements)
  - Calendars (cultural reference frames)
  - Time pieces (micro-cultural reference frames)
- Intrinsic:
  Temporal relations:
  - event
  - utterance
  - reference
  Intrinsic time frames create a frame of reference within a system for the purpose of establishing temporal relations.
  - absolute: past/present/future
  - relative: then/before/now/after/when
    the "now" moment as point of reference
  Extrinsic and intrinsic systems may be integrated or a system of correspondence may be established to allow them to be represented in relation to each other.
  Extrinsic time can be linked to a dates while intrinsic time may, but need not, depend upon pseudo-dates (e.g. "Before such and such").
Notation Systems
- Causality assessment (causality not equal to precedence relation)
- Now moment marker and other diectic elements