The biological cell (was: Erlang)

Rob Withers reefedjib at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 18 04:18:57 UTC 2003


--- Joshua 'Schwa' Gargus <schwa at cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 11:44:07AM -0800, Alan Kay
> wrote:
> > >>It's worthwhile contemplating that most bits in
> computers are 
> > >>dynamic relations between processes, so "state"
> is really a kind of 
> > >>process .... Quite a few of the ideas in Special
> Relativity on "how 
> > >>one knows about things going on" apply to these
> ideas.
> 
> <and also wrote:>
> 
> > In hardware, an inverter that sends a message back
> to its input 
> > becomes a clock (this is because there is a
> delay). Two of these can 
> > be made into a flip-flop which is a more
> interesting delay. Etc.
> > 
> > Of course, this is only one way to think about
> these ideas (but this 
> > perspective is often useful).
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Alan
> 
> Wow, that is really a very eloquent description that
> gets to the heart
> of the matter.  I "sort of" understood this point
> before (with my
> level of understanding waxing and waning), but
> thanks to you example,
> I now get it, period.  Now to incorporate it into my
> "common sense"
> understanding of computation...

Thanks, Joshua.  :)



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