Evolution in schools; legal trap (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 15:56 (4524 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

The big difference in terms of training is simply that I understand from a schematic level how a computer works.-In fact, I think we're so close to being on the same page, but you don't realize it. We need to strip an electronic computer down to its barest parts, by tracing its path through history.-The earliest computers such as an abacus or adding machines took input in regards to a human punching keys or flipping beads, and whose output was the result of manual manipulation. In the case of an abacus, the memory is the beads themselves, the CPU is the human mind, and the ALU together. The human mind was also the primary source of long-term storage, maybe in the form of writing it down--or just plain old fashioned memory!-I don't know what you know, so I'll define those last two abbrevations:-ALU = Arithmetic Logic Unit --> performs the activities of addition, subtraction, and optionally logical tests. CPU = Central Processing Unit --> carries out user's instructions to control the ALU for some computational goal.-The adding machine moved the Arithmetic part of the ALU into the machine, but still relied on the human being for CPU, and maybe added a tape for explicit long-term memory.-So far however, these computers--and they're still computers--served the purpose of automating certain kinds of calculations for a human.-Before we move to the electronic era, it's important to note the importance of Allfather Turing. He's the one that demonstrated ( in purely theoretical fashion) what general computer should look like.-I pause here in the history lesson to point out, that at this point, both an abacus and an adding machine BOTH have the nature that the computer doesn't know anything at all about *what to do.* (As a matter of fact, neither do most non-graphing calculators--which are still considered computers.) In fact, at no point does a computer *know* what its doing. It just does this:-1. get next instruction 2. get data for operands 3. execute instruction 4. store result 5. goto 1-The earliest electronic computers had no more memory than something called *registers.* These are no more than circuits that hold 0 and 1 values. By moving plugs around on a plugboard, a user would "program" their adding machine--the people were called computers--to manipulate 0s and 1s through the registers, and display the results of computations--using punch cards, naturally. This was the first computer that put the ALU and CPU together into a single unit... but it required dozens of people to operate.-I just described the ENIAC. Remember however, a user is still required to determine the meaning of input/output, and to verify the machine's validity. It wasn't until the 1950s where adding machines started taking the title "computer" away from humans.-So in conclusion... a computer is no less complex than the human mind, because a computer (at present) can do nothing at all without a mind to interpret and evaluate results. A computer doesn't act in a vacuum. And a computer only outsources functions we already do in our own heads... meaning that a light switch, where a human mind maps "ooh" to "on," and "awww" to "off" is the simplest computer possible. Which is the same thing as a one-bead abacus.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"