A Continuous Hierarchy

Composite functions in computers take a time to run. Each step takes time. Climbing up and down hills take time. Each step takes time. So how are steps in computer science like steps in a computer? We can often determine how long a step will take in a computer. A composite step however, may take different amounts of time. Thus we assign a range to the amount of time an algorithm takes, or a big O() notation. In real life, we can give a rough estimate to how long a step will take, but it depends on how fast the person is hiking, what kinds of obstacles there are, etc. Similarly, there might be obstacles in computer science. The hills in computers are circuits, and each step is a transistor. The circuit is continuous. If we use AND OR and NOT as primitives on the network, we can see even more time being spent between steps. Light bounces around the room a continuous fashion, and each collision with an object is a step.