[cap-talk] Authority vs. Information Flow

[Toby Murray]

On Mon, 2008-02-18 at 00:24 +0000, Karp, Alan H wrote:
> Toby Murray wrote:
> >
> > I'm not only interested in what Alice can cause in the current state,
> > but what she could conceivably cause in any future state too. This is
> > surely the safest way to gauge authority.
> >
> But not past state, I take it.  Then by your definition Alice's authority is the set of effects she can have over time.  By that definition, the timing of Dave's action can't change Alice's authority to cause Bob to see the light.  Either Dave pushed his button before the time of interest, and Alice never had the authority, or Dave had not yet pushed his button, and Alice has the authority even though Dave later pushes first.
> 

Precisely. Thanks for putting it so clearly.