Making Real Time

Making Real Time examines how distributed information systems produce the conditions experienced as “real time,” tracing the relationship among physical distance, network latency, computation, caching, synchronization, and human perception.

Real time is neither instantaneous nor simply a matter of speed. Distributed systems coordinate processes occurring at different times and in different places, using replication, caching, prediction, and synchronization to manage the effects of distance. The project distinguishes physical propagation limits from network latency, application response, and perceived delay, examining how infrastructures approximate simultaneity and where the limits of that coordination become visible.