Showing posts with label low-tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label low-tech. Show all posts
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Would it help if I drew a flow chart?
Such great things come out of MIT's media lab: one of their visitors has built a water-based computer.
This could come in handy in the event of a massive electromagnetic pulse. However, I suspect most people would have other matters on their mind at that point.
In all seriousness, this is a wonderful project. Like other mechanical algorithm devices, it allows the fundamental procedures of computation to be animated in space, relieving the burden of mental modeling from the executor.
But remember, if you're seated in the first six rows, you may get wet during this subroutine.
This could come in handy in the event of a massive electromagnetic pulse. However, I suspect most people would have other matters on their mind at that point.
In all seriousness, this is a wonderful project. Like other mechanical algorithm devices, it allows the fundamental procedures of computation to be animated in space, relieving the burden of mental modeling from the executor.
But remember, if you're seated in the first six rows, you may get wet during this subroutine.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Elucidating low technology
All manner of news outlets are reporting on the just announced unraveling of the heretofore mysterious Antikythera mechanism, rediscovered over 100 years ago after falling to the bottom of the Sea of Crete nearly 2000 years before that. Network World has a few photos of the X-ray and tomographic technicians at work, and Wired has put up some beautiful pictures of the device produced from Hewlett-Packard's gallery of reflectance images, in which the user can control how the object is lit. Especially interesting are the fragments of documentation etched into the works, although I must say, it's all Greek to me.
As long-time readers know, I have a soft spot for collisions between the old and the new. It's rather appealing to see the advances in imaging technology over the past century reverse the effects of the elements grinding away for millennia. Consider how lucky we are that it was recovered late enough in history that non-destructive methods were used to study it; it's not too hard to imagine a Victorian-era engineer attempting to take it apart or washing it with baking soda and vinegar.
Having recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel, I can't help but be reminded of the Phaistos disk, another artifact illustrating that Cretan technology was far ahead of its time. It would seem that in both cases the adaptive advantage offered by adopting the new technology (in the case of Phaistos, movable type; in the case of Antikythera, geared wheels) was insufficient to merit the labor required to implement them. The criteria for an innovative idea to be "good" depends on context much more than many people realize.
As long-time readers know, I have a soft spot for collisions between the old and the new. It's rather appealing to see the advances in imaging technology over the past century reverse the effects of the elements grinding away for millennia. Consider how lucky we are that it was recovered late enough in history that non-destructive methods were used to study it; it's not too hard to imagine a Victorian-era engineer attempting to take it apart or washing it with baking soda and vinegar.
Having recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel, I can't help but be reminded of the Phaistos disk, another artifact illustrating that Cretan technology was far ahead of its time. It would seem that in both cases the adaptive advantage offered by adopting the new technology (in the case of Phaistos, movable type; in the case of Antikythera, geared wheels) was insufficient to merit the labor required to implement them. The criteria for an innovative idea to be "good" depends on context much more than many people realize.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
In 2006 we use the technology of 1958 to recreate the technology of 1849
A. Carol has built a difference engine No. 2 from LEGO.* Not only does this evoke fond childhood memories of building trucks and castles, but it also calls me to consider the role of mechanically assisted computation in mathematics.
The difference engine sits at a fascinating point in the history of the relationship between mathematicians and machines. Because the mechanism by which its atomic components produce its output can be seen, and even touched, the user can maintain intimate contact with the algorithm as it progresses. Compare this to the simplest of modern calculators, or the first vacuum tube computers; their processes are invisible, necessarily rendering them "black boxes", even to their creators. A tremendous leap of faith is required to accept their output as valid. Because the difference engine is what an educator might call a "manipulative", no such leap is needed.
However, I would never trade my computational tools for C. Babbage's technology. The importance of computational mathematics both with an eye to applications and as a means of generating examples, as well as methods of computer-assisted proof (as used for the four-color theorem or the work of S. B. Echad), cannot be understated. Of course, this doesn't even include the immeasurable societal benefit of computational technology that has proceeded in parallel with these advances in the mathematical arts and sciences.
But still, there's that irreplaceable satisfaction that comes from seeing an algorithm happen. As it is, I can only achieve this from examples worked out by hand.
*The plural of LEGO is in fact LEGO.
The difference engine sits at a fascinating point in the history of the relationship between mathematicians and machines. Because the mechanism by which its atomic components produce its output can be seen, and even touched, the user can maintain intimate contact with the algorithm as it progresses. Compare this to the simplest of modern calculators, or the first vacuum tube computers; their processes are invisible, necessarily rendering them "black boxes", even to their creators. A tremendous leap of faith is required to accept their output as valid. Because the difference engine is what an educator might call a "manipulative", no such leap is needed.
However, I would never trade my computational tools for C. Babbage's technology. The importance of computational mathematics both with an eye to applications and as a means of generating examples, as well as methods of computer-assisted proof (as used for the four-color theorem or the work of S. B. Echad), cannot be understated. Of course, this doesn't even include the immeasurable societal benefit of computational technology that has proceeded in parallel with these advances in the mathematical arts and sciences.
But still, there's that irreplaceable satisfaction that comes from seeing an algorithm happen. As it is, I can only achieve this from examples worked out by hand.
*The plural of LEGO is in fact LEGO.
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