Causal-to-Computational Interface
The Causal-to-Computational Interface is the mechanism by which Agents couple. One Agent acts within its Causal Boundary — it emits a signal (a pheromone, an utterance, an email, a bioelectric pulse, an API call). That emission becomes input to a second Agent only if it lands inside the second Agent’s Computational Boundary. In the framework’s shorthand: one Agent’s Causal output is another Agent’s Computational input.
This is what every Protocol is built from. Meeting cadence in an organization, ion-channel signaling between cells, turn-taking in a conversation, HTTP between services — each is a set of rules governing Causal-to-Computational couplings along specific edges of a Topology. When the overlap between one Agent’s Causal Boundary and another’s Computational Boundary shrinks to zero, direct communication becomes impossible; intermediary chains (other Agents or environmental mechanisms) may bridge the gap. When the interface runs bidirectionally, feedback loops produce regulation and homeostasis. Communication, in the framework’s defined sense, is the alignment of these interfaces in both directions.