Why Computation?

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

  • Arthur C. Clark
Antikythera mechanism
Antikythera’s harbor Potamos

Antikythera Mechanism

  • Oldest known computer
  • Dated to around 200BCE
  • Found in a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901
  • Accurately computes positions of astronomical bodies and dates of eclipses
Model
Solar Eclipse

What did you learn about bicycles?

Why did we read about bicycles?

Locomotion Efficiency

To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.

David Sayre

What are computers capable of?

Capabilities

  • Perform mathematical operations
  • Store data
  • Retrieve data

How do computers function

  • Retrieve information from data storage (RAM, drives, network, etc)
  • Perform mathematical operations on data

How does the computer know which operations to perform?

Solving Problems

  • In order to solve complex problems, we need to decompose them to subproblems solvable with simple instructions
  • Computers (or humans) can execute the basic instructions
Chain-of-thought Prompting

Executing Instructions

  • Computer programs are instructions to follow to solve our problem
  • Instructions must be complete and unambiguous
  • It is not easy to craft correct instructions

Instruction Example