Supertask

For the computer science term, see Computational complexity theory.

In philosophy, a supertask is a countably infinite sequence of operations that occur sequentially within a finite interval of time.[1] Supertasks are called hypertasks when the number of operations becomes uncountably infinite. A hypertask that includes one task for each ordinal number is called an ultratask.[2] The term "supertask" was coined by the philosopher James F. Thomson, who devised Thomson's lamp. The term "hypertask" derives from Clark and Read in their paper of that name.[3]

  1. ^ This concept relates to cardinal numbers.
  2. ^ Al-Dhalimy, Haidar; Geyer, Charles (December 2016). "Surreal Time and Ultratasks". The Review of Symbolic Logic. 9 (4). Cambridge University Press: 836–847. doi:10.1017/S1755020316000289.
  3. ^ Clark, Peter; Read, Stephen (December 1984). "Hypertasks". Synthese. 61 (3). Springer Netherlands: 387–390. doi:10.1007/BF00485061. ISSN 1573-0964.