| Upside down ∀s and algorithms – computational formalisms and theory (2008) | |||||||||||||||
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| The time delay as Internet signals cross the Atlantic is about 70 milliseconds, about the same time it takes for a nerve impulse to run from your finger to your brain. Parallels between computation and cognition run as far back as computers themselves. Although at first it feels as if the cold, abstruse, more formal aspects of computation are divorced from the rich ecology of the human–computer interface, the two are intimately bound. Mathematics has also been part of this picture. Indeed the theory of computation predates digital computers themselves as mathematicians pondered the limits of human reasoning and computation. There are a number of aspects of this interplay between computation, mathematics and the human–computer interface. First, understanding your raw material is essential in all design. Part of the material of human–computer interaction is the computer itself. Theoretical and formal aspects of computing can help us understand the practical and theoretical limits of computer systems, and thus design around these limits. Second, diagrams, drawings and models are an integral part of the design process. | |||||||||||||||
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