The Knowledge of Preconditions principle

This talk will present a simple principle relating knowledge and action in distributed systems: If some condition must be true when a given action is taken, then this condition must be known when the action is taken. This yields a number of fundamental connections between knowledge and multi-party coordination. In particular, the talk will illustrate how these can provide insight into the interplay between time, communication and coordination in networks and distributed systems. The talk will be self-contained, intended for a general CS audience.

The latter part of the talk is based on joint work with Ido Ben Zvi. No familiarity with the subject will be assumed.

Yoram Moses is the Israel Pollack Academic Chair at the Technion. He is a recipient of the Godel Prize 1997 and the Dijkstra Award in 2009.