We provide a brief primer for the idea behind formalising hierarchical causality in the context of complex systems. Here actors are not simply agents. Actors instantiate causation classes. Agents implement local dynamics in given levels or organisation in a given system. Hierarchical causality then describes how actor-level roles constrain, select, and organise agent-level behaviour across levels. The system then necessarily requires three additional structures. First, causation classes to abstract a given form of causal influence that an actor instantiates. Second, aggregation operators to move across the levels. Third, discrete event-time maps are required because the system comprises events, and the relation between local event counts and any global clock must be specified. Our formulation here is purposefully simple and discrete.

翻译：我们简要介绍了在复杂系统背景下形式化层次因果性的基本思想。在此框架中，行动者并非简单的智能体。行动者实例化因果类，而智能体则在给定系统的特定组织层级上实现局部动力学。层次因果性进而描述了行动者角色如何在层级间约束、选择并组织智能体层面的行为。该系统必然需要三种额外的结构：首先，因果类用于抽象行动者所实例化的特定因果影响形式；其次，聚合算子用于在不同层级间移动；最后，离散事件-时间映射是必需的，因为系统由事件构成，并且必须明确局部事件计数与任何全局时钟之间的关系。我们的表述有意采用了简单且离散的形式。