Toni Westbrook dot Com

The Joy of Computer Science and Engineering

Hanging on the wall of my cubicle at work, I have quite a number of geek related items, from web comics involving SQL jokes to a detailed mechanical diagram of K-9 from Doctor Who. Always in my field of vision, though, are some small photos of my computer science heroes. It's not surprising that many non-geeks haven't heard of these people - but it is sad. Most people know media stars like Tom Cruise, Eminem, and Michael Jordan, who are rightfully talented in their fields - but mention John von Neumann, Max Planck, or Kurt Gödel, and most won't have heard of them. This is a shame, because it is the mathematicians, scientists, and engineers of history who have made many things we now enjoy possible. Given that we live in a place that gives an average salary of 2.7 million dollars to baseball players, it's nice to at least recognize the people that make an incalculable impact on life.

The Man, The Legend

One of these people, regarded as the father of Computer Science, is one of my biggest heroes, and goes by the name Alan Turing. Born in 1912, Turing started life off in a world that had never seen a finished computer. The field of mathematical logic was new and fresh, with the work of mathematicians like Boole, De Morgan, Peano, and Hilbert (among others) paving the way for computation theory and algorithms.

WWII Work

Turing made contribution after contribution not only in this new field of Computer Science, but also to the world as a whole. During World War II he was a cryptanalyst, designing a device and doing work that would decipher encoded German communications, giving the Allies a key advantage.

Artificial Intelligence

Turing also had a keen interest in the ideas of computation and intelligence, and how the two related, ideas that would later found the area known as Artificial Intelligence. He developed the Turing Test which addresses, at its roots, that there is no distinction between intelligence and something that acts truly intelligent. It was a concept that is still not even truly accepted today by all; an effort in logic to dispel the idea that intelligence is somehow ineffable.

The Turing Machine

From pattern work with the mathematics of biology, to theory of computation, Turing gave more and more to the community. One of his biggest contributions (and my favorite part of his work), an idea that continues to pervade every inch of a computer from hardware to operating system to software, from a word processor to a video game emulator, is that of the Turing Machine. Some (like myself) would go so far as to say it pervades every aspect of the Universe.

More on This Concept

To give some background, the idea of a Turing Machine is a simple machine that can perform algorithms to compute a value. The idea of a Universal Turing Machine is one that can compute any Turing Machine, and hence anything computable, including OTHER Universal Turing Machines. This is what a computer is - it is a device that can, given enough time, compute anything that can be computed. Not only that, but since computers are themselves computable (i.e. computers work algorithmically), any computer can emulate any OTHER computer. This is proven all the time, from video game emulators, to Java, .NET, and virtual machines (including my Gruepal project!). The Turing machine speaks to the heart of Functionalism, which is that it is not the "stuff" that matters, but the function the "stuff" performs. E.g. you can make a calculator out of silicon chips, steam through pipes and valves, or virtually on a computer (e.g. doesn't physically exist at all), but it still adds 2+7 the same, as long as the functionality is intact.

I won't jump too far off course from Turing, but I can't stress how important this concept is, and one that I guarantee we will continue to discover more about in the decades to come. In a sense, the human brain is very much a Universal Turing Machine (though fallible), as you could, mentally or on paper, emulate any computer or machine algorithmically - as many programmers do constantly every day in their line of work. And with the Universe giving rise to everything, all Turing machines, and having a tendency to recurse, there is a good chance (some will say), that this whole great ball of wax is just one big Universal Turing Machine recursing over and over into other Universal Turing Machines. It is one of the reasons I tell people that Computer Science has more to do with the Universe itself than any pile of microchips.

The Final Years

Regardless of how deep or far the philosophy goes though, there can be no denying the role Alan Turing played in the mathematics behind computability and computers. His absolutely life changing work was rewarded by his government giving him the choice of imprisonment or estrogen injections when it was found out he was homosexual. Homosexuality was still illegal in the UK at this time, and though he had literally helped save the world only a few years before, this meant nothing in the light that he was attracted to men. After the effects of the hormones and ostracism from the life he knew, he committed suicide by eating an cyanide laced apple.

I remember the first time reading the details about Turing's death, and how just pissed off and horrified I was about the whole thing. You'd think times had changed since Galileo, but they were still going strong in 1952. It is a relief, though, that since then he has become such an honored person, with a prestigious award and many memorials named after him.

Respect

So here's a most humble, awe-filled, respectful shout out to my hero, Alan Mathison Turing. I would be proud to be 1/100th the Computer Scientist he was.

I make no secret that I am a huge fan of Telltale Games, as can be seen in my first post on what a top notch gaming company they are. I urge you to check them out if you haven't heard of them before or seen their creations.

I just got through playing the final installment in the Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People series - "8-bit is Enough" - and I've got to say, they've yet to let me down - the game was simply awesome. I won't give anything away, but as you Homestar Runner fans know, the Brothers Chaps have an affinity for the 8 bit world, both poking fun and reliving the joy that was gaming in the 80s. All that is brought to new light in "8-bit is Enough", with the 8-bit world bleeding and mixing into the game world of Strong Bad. For a retro geek like me, it was fun, hilarious, and just a great time to play. The puzzles were pretty good, not great, but on par with previous Strong Bad adventures - but the retro feel of the game was the real champion here - cavorting and battling against pixelated baddies was very true to the spirit of Homestar Runner and ripe with in-jokes of our arcade past.

Featuring everyone's favorite Trogdor, this one was definitely my favorite in the series, with the first episode being a close second. If you're into adventure games, retrogaming goodness, the Homestar Runner gang, or just having fun, I definitely suggest playing the entire series, it's a lot of fun at a very reasonable price.

Links to check out:

Telltale Games
Homestar Runner

WARNING
This borders on a rant - I get into moods where I like to rant, and this is one of them. Treat it accordingly

A (semi) quick thought before I go to bed. There are times in my technology filled life of smart phones, streaming, bluetooth, web 2.0, multitasking, scheduling, interoperability, synchronization, single sign on, and coordination that I honestly just get sick and tired of being efficient all the time. I understand the theory in that by working smarter, not harder, you can get more done - but what's the point?

People have a lot of reasons for being more efficient - one of the major points: getting more done in a shorter amount of time. The theory is that we either don't like doing crap, or there is a reward for doing crap, so we devise ways of doing more crap in less time so we have a bigger reward - this reward being the extra free time we saved from doing the crap quickly, or a payment we received in exchange for doing the crap.

The Fisherman

One of the problems that comes into play is we usually take the time we've saved by being efficient and put it back into activities surrounding the crap again - either working more or devising even better ways of being efficient for work in the future.

My friend Leah had read me a story once, and I'll do my best to only semi-misquote it here. It concerns a business man talking to a guy fishing on a beach. The conversation goes a little something like this:

Businessman: Why don't you go get a job, you lazy fisherman?
Fisherman: Why should I get a job?
Businessman: So you can make it into a career.
Fisherman: Why should I have a career?
Businessman: So you can climb up the ladder, make a lot of money
Fisherman: Why do I need a lot of money?
Businessman: So you can invest it, build up a retirement fund
Fisherman: Why do I need a retirement fund?
Businessman: So you can live out your final days relaxing, fishing on a beach somewhere

Obviously the story leaves out any points of the fisherman having a family, responsibilities, or supporting himself, but the point is still there. The dig here is not against business, but the attitude of the businessman, this "prerequisite of happiness" thing where you're constantly working to get to somewhere that can be reached without doing all that crap in the first place. The bigger paycheck, the larger office, and the faster car always seem more appealing from far away, but when you're actually there, they give no happiness compared to the proverbial sitting on the beach and fishing. And if that truly is the goal, then why not cut out the middle man?

The Driving Force

We live in a nation of bigger, better, faster, compete, win, more, more, more. It's driven into us in a number of ways - we must excel in all that we do. Our country's finances operate on capitalism, and it's a survival of the fittest game. And while this drive pushes us to achieve amazing things and delivers us glory, does it truly make us happier in the long run? Especially considering new abilities are often paired with new issues?

All this is the subject of a much more detailed and lengthy article than I could write, and I'm definitely not arguing against progress. But there are many times in my life when I want to unplug - when I'd rather hand write a letter to a friend than send them a Facebook message, or give them a call on the phone instead of text messaging them. There are times when I don't want to be the fastest or the best, I don't want to be connected wherever I go - I just want some quiet, some peace, and some happiness.

I think what it really comes down to is needing balance - it's something I've been working on quite a bit the last month or so. As odd as it sounds, I need to put more fisherman into my life.