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I think this article has an incredibly important point most people are missing because it is terribly written. Part of this is that analog vs digital isn’t the
by josephpmay 8y ago
I think this article has an incredibly important point most people are missing because it is terribly written.
Part of this is that analog vs digital isn’t the right term. Vacuum tubes are completely irrelevant to the point he is trying to make, and confuse the reader.
The point he’s trying to make (which unfortunately I’m unable to explain right now better than he can) is about the emergent properties of systems made up of independnt entities in a rigid form and how this is a type of computing that differs from what we usually think of as computing. The example he have about DNA vs the brain sort of gives an example of this. DNA is coded similarly to computers, and in many ways cells are like computers/programs (that happen to self-propagate according to their software). On the other hand, brains are this other type of “system” computer made up of a combination of independent actors (neuron cells), a regidid but adaptable structure (the physical structure of the brain), inputs, and information sent between the individual actors. This is very similar to a million computer-regulated human systems where we react to information we receive through the platform, and we relay our reaction to the system, and that reaction affects how the system interacts with other individual actors.
- Joeri 8y agoabout the emergent properties of systems made up of independnt entities in a rigid form and how this is a type of computing that differs from what we usually think of as computing A way of viewing it is inversion of control between emergent behavior and programmed behavior. When the number of interactions between discrete units of programmed behavior exceeds a certain threshold the programmed logic responds to the emergent interactions instead of dictating it. The system as a whole starts obeying its own logic instead of one programmed into it. I suppose you need to see such systems more like ecologies to be studied with techniques not far off from those used to study natural ecologies.
- diydsp 8y agoah, almost like when we have robots building so many products, but the robots are limited in what they can fashion, so we end up mostly using products which are reflections of machine-capabilities?
- lotsofpulp 8y agoThe buyers in the market choose to purchase products which reflect machine capabilities. No one is being stopped from using products that machine capable, but people seem to prioritize other qualities such as less expensive.
- coldtea 8y ago>The buyers in the market choose to purchase products which reflect machine capabilities. The buyers are limited by: (a) what's cheap so they can afford, (b) what's available, (c) what's advertised -- among other things. There's no "perfect market" where people perfectly "vote with their wallets".
- emmanueloga_ 8y agore: emergent behavior. Funny I first heard about this concept this very week from a random SMBC comic. [1] 1: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3637 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3637
- zwkrt 8y agoDaniel Dennet would phrase it as "people don't design boats, the ocean designs boats". Our technology doesn't just serve our requirements, it is also built to satisfy the inherent requirements of our physical world. However as our world becomes more filled with technology, the requirements start being altered by other technologies we would like to keep around. In this sense technology evolves and is selected in ways very similar to life itself.
- api 8y agoNone of these ideas are new if you've studied evolution, ecology, economics, complexity, game theory, etc. All those fields are inter-related and study emergent behaviors like these. Unfortunately few CS people or other engineers have touched these areas.
- james_s_tayler 8y agoIt really starts to blow you away how hard it is to have an original thought the more disciplines you dive into because as you're going through the material they constantly put a name to all the things you've thought about before but didn't realize were actually a thing. Getting across a multitude of disciplines is highly underrated.
- roselan 8y agoAh, stand alone complex.