The biological cell (was: Erlang)
Joshua 'Schwa' Gargus
schwa at cc.gatech.edu
Mon Nov 17 22:16:22 UTC 2003
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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