4 ms·
I always wondered how a database would know which transactions to commit first in a relativistic world?
by mrfusion 9y ago
I always wondered how a database would know which transactions to commit first in a relativistic world?
- fjsolwmv 9y agoYou don't need relativity, this problem is already answered by distributed systems that lack TrueTime clock guarantees. Today have to make arbitrary and inconsistent choices. (Or "eventually consistent", but then you lose some level of resolution in your ordering of moments) Related, this classic economic article: https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf https://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf
- philipov 9y agoRelativistic systems still behave causally; What observers can't agree on is how much time passes between events. The database is just another observer, so it would commit the transactions in the order that light-rays arrive. The requirement to preserve causality is why there is an upper bound on the speed of information, so that all observers can still agree on the order of events.