Intro Flashcards
What is computing?
Computing is an instrument of language which involves the symbolic rendering of state and transition in a process.
~Computing is the expression of the human mental activity with the language of symbols. It involves symbolic rendering and manipulation of the states and transitions in a process.~
What is grammar?
Grammar is a tool for is used to formulate an acceptable arrangement of terms in a valid expression of an instrument of language.
It lays out a set of rules for generating the valid strings of a language. It is a 4-tuple (quadruple) defined as:
G = <S, T, E, P>
G is grammar,
S is a finite set of symbols
T is a finite set of term
E is the expression or starting variable
P is the production rule
What are the differences between biological agencies (BA) and non-biological (NA) agencies?
- BA starts and stops on its own | NA requires a trigger to start and end.
- BA has faculty of language| NA is created with an instrument of language
- Once BA starts it only stops when energy runs out and its organs fail. | When NA starts it only stops when energy runs out and parts fail
- BA has sensory organs | NA has sensors and actuators
What is language?
Language is an instrument which gives the human mental activity (a more sensorily acessible) material expression
Compare what is solvable with what is unsolvable.
Something is solvable if the process is finite. An example of this is the sum of the first ten terms of an arithmetic progression.
What is unsolvable is that whose process is infinite, and a good example of this is the Taylor series.
Compare mystery and a problem.
A problem is an unknown that is within the ambit of an arbitral context neutral language
A mystery, however, lies outside the scope of a context neutral language. It is harder to describe
What is Agency?
Agency is Process with feedback.
What is a process?
A process prescribes the transition of an object from an undesired to a desired state.
It is the action of transforming an object from one state to another, specifically to a state preferred or desired by the entity (agent) performing the action
What is feedback?
Feedback occurs in computing when the output generated – the desired state obtained by Process – is reused as the Activity’s input to generate another output.
‘a’?
Means it is a character or symbol.
“a”
It is a string.
a+
Means it is a string of at least one ‘a’. Can be more than one but can’t be zero.
a*
Means it is an optional string of ‘a’. Can be “ “ (empty), or “aaaaa”.
a?
Optional symbol; you can have ‘ ‘, or ‘aaa’, which are symbols not strings.
What is a word string?
Word strings are strings that have been assigned as labels to an object.
What is a vocabulary?
open set of all the word strings in a language
What is a dictionary?
A dictionary is an ordered pairing of a language’s vocabulary with the narratives that describe the (information) content of each word or term.
