This portfolio showcases my work and projects completed during the course.
For the first chapter, I would like to respond to the section “FREE TO WORRY ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE”. This chapter resonated with me strongly as someone who loves to tinker with computers and has their bachelor’s in computer science. To speak to the “difference that makes a difference”, not once in my time in the program did was I explained to in even as high-level detail as this chapter of the basic principles behind actually implementing Boolean logic. Only recently have I started to dabble with electronics (shoutout to ElectroBOOM) and so this plain term statement of “AND is two switches in series and OR is two switches in parallel” really set pieces in place in my mind. So I want to say, if this chapter seemed daunting, truly the author means it when he says, “For most purposes, we can forget about technology.”
The second chapter is certainly a bit headier than the first. I’m not entirely certain of the target audience of the book so far. I feel like the author is providing a high-level summary of what I learned in undergrad, but some entire courses I took are being summarized in a few sentences (looking at you Comparative Languages, Computer Organization, and Formal Languages and Automata Theory). That is to say, it feels like I am getting refresher, and the book assumes some knowledge going in (this is a frequent issue I have noticed with computing and math nuts, they’re not always the best explainers first time around). Sure enough the intro to chapter 3 confirms my suspicions: “Ultimately all these functions are implemented by the Boolean logic blocks and finite-state machines described in the previous chapter, but the human computer programmer rarely thinks about these elements;”
Chapter 3 feels more like a proper introduction. I would like to compare the Logo example with some more recent technologies that many kids use that would similarly expose them to computing at an early age. When I was in middle school, all I ever really wanted to do was to play Minecraft. In Minecraft, there are computing primitives through Redstone circuits, these are optional, commonplace items throughout the game. I was never particularly interested in this aspect of the game, but I had plenty of friends who were. People have gone on to do some wildly impressive things within the game such as: “I Made a Working Computer with just Redstone!” or see mod-packs like Industrial Craft. A few other examples that come to mind are both Garry’s Mod (see the GMod console) and Roblox (see Roblox Studio), I sit pretty squarely between these generations hence my main exposure being Minecraft.
