credential from a trusted third party, and that authorization is unambiguously connected to the identity of the person. My iris pattern establishes my identity while a credential (a driver license) from the Department of Motor Vehicles establishes my authorization to legally operate an automobile. What then can we say about the actual interaction process?

Interactions proceed according to the rules defined for a specific policy infrastructure. We alluded to the fact that interactions within the physical ecosystem, deriving as they do from basic forces, are essentially infinite in extent and duration. There are obviously similar interactions that occur within social ecosystems as well, perhaps not infinite in extent and duration, but very wide and long nonetheless. In order to have some chance of understanding the various aspects of interactions, it is useful to define a more constrained process, a well-defined interaction called a transaction.

Simply put, a transaction is an interaction of well-defined and constrained scope; the extent of its impact is limited, as is the duration of its conduct. In essence, a transaction occurs in a well-defined place at a well-defined time, and procedurally it has a well-defined beginning, middle and end. The constraints on a transaction are defined as part of the specification of policy within a policy infrastructure. If we think in terms of government-established law, then infractions of the law are generally considered as transactions. The place of their occurrence determines the jurisdiction of law under which they fall. The time of their occurrence determines the degree to which consequences can be affixed to their subversion. In some jurisdictions, certain crimes have a statute of limitations; such a limitation compels the enforcers of laws to prosecute the perpetrator of an infraction within a set amount of time following its occurrence.

In what we would hope would be a more normal case, such as the purchase of some item, a transaction is much more mundane. In a store, we approach a sales agent with an item we want to purchase. The agent determines the total cost of the item and we then offer up some form of payment. When the agent is satisfied that payment has been properly conveyed, the item is put in a bag and we walk out of the store with it. Correspondingly, if we purchase a book from a Web site on the Internet, the transaction model is very similar. We put the book in our “shopping cart” and when we’ve completed our shopping we “proceed to check-out”. Here we proffer our credit card number. The Web site makes a charge against this card and, on this completion of the transaction, schedules our book for delivery by some physical conveyance mechanism; that is, they mail the book to us.

Finally, a transaction has a well-defined end. At the end of the transaction, either appropriate procedures have been enacted to cause the overall state of the infrastructure to change as dictated by the transaction, or the state reverts to exactly that occurring before the start of the transaction. Thus, transactions are generally perceived as atomic events; they either completely occur, or they never happened. Once they occur, of course, we might be concerned with the result; i.e. the consequences.

Transactions are marked by consequences; that is their intent. As we alluded above, the purpose of a transaction is to change the state of the infrastructure, perhaps profoundly, perhaps superficially. Under the United States national government and within most state governments, there are at least three distinct forms of law: criminal law, civil law and administrative law. Interactions are governed by a different set of rules within each of these domains, and each incurs its own type of consequences as a result. The laws of the United States, criminal and civil, are established through legislative action, with executive concurrence, and are compiled in written form in the United

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