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A process is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of operations or events, possibly taking up time, space, expertise or other resource, which produces some outcome. A process may be identified by the changes it creates in the properties of one or more objects under its influence. Compare: project. See also: process management, process theory, and Nature.

1 Examples

A process may be categorized as singular, recurrent , or periodic. A singular process would be one which occurs only once. Few processes in nature can be considered singular. Most processes found in nature are recurrent, or repeat more than once. Recurring processes which repeat at a constant rate are considered periodic. The more periodic a process is the more useful it is as the basis of a clock. Below are a few specific examples of processes.

2 Philosophy

In philosophy and systems theory, basic processes, or logical homologies as they were termed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, are unifying principles which operate in many different systemic contexts. For example, feedback, the principle which figures prominently in the science of cybernetics. Natural and industrial processes utilize basic processes such as feedback.

There is a philosophical system known as process philosophy, created by Alfred North Whitehead; related to this is process theology.





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