1st Blog Post | Cybernetics

I've heard many rumours about people writing really long blogs and then their computer crashing or their iPhone freezing etc.
Not particularly something I want, so I'm going to save this every 5 minutes.

Update 14/10/11 (19:30) The blog is very big so I've highlighted the important parts in blue

On Tuesday, we had some man come in... My memory is a little foggy and I'm also exciting it's my Birthday today. Which is awesome. I think the guys name was Alan anyway.

And from what I do remember, he wanted two people to move their tables so he could set up his experiment. The tables were parallel to each other and he got two people to sit at those tables - one at each, back to back. Both tables had wooden shapes on them, exactly the same on each table.

It looked just like this.. well kind of.
So Alan would take one guys set of blocks, (lets say the red guy) and put them in a certain pattern. Then the red guy would have explain to the blue guy where to place the blocks to get them looking exactly the same as his set. The blue guy would only be allowed to say "Repeat please". I found this experiment fascinating for a number of reasons, one because it taught me how vague some people can be with instructions. Secondly because it looked at communication in a different light.

Here is a little diagram Alan showed us.


This isn't the complete one, but one of what I've explained so far.

S - Signal
I - Information
M - Movement
R - Receiver
T - Transmitter


The diagram basically states that we transmit information through movement and signal (vocal), to the receiver.

I thought it was strange that Alan said we could say the instructions to each other in a different language, as opposed to English, if we so wished. Later I began to realise he had a good reason for this. Although obvious, it was a common language we all needed in common for this diagram to actually make sense.

By the end of it, things had switched up a little. Alan got people to distract the guy giving instructions to where his blocks were. By making noise, it made the instructions harder to give.

The diagram now looked like this

This version made much more sense as it bared in mind that a common language was needed and that unwanted signal would make it harder for the reciever to hear and the transmitter to give an as clear signal.

I believe this was called the Process Model of Communication.
I also recall Shannon and Weaver being mentioned so I can only assume they made it, but after some research using Google and I safely say that assumption was correct.

I had a go at doing this block thing, where I had to give instructions to the person behind me where the cubes were. Something which made me proud was that my instructions were clear enough for the other person to easily replicate the blocks positions which I saw in front of me. Although, with that being said, one block was still out of place. Still the best in the class though ;)

Alan then went on to write on the board in the class, he began to mention other people like Norbert Weiner and what he had done. He showed us cybernetics, the communication between humans and machines.

Due to my MSPaint skills, here is a slightly complicated version of the diagram. But all information is intact and there.

It shows the process of the things which need to be done in order for a human to interact with a computer and for the computer to create a noticeable result on the render display.




He then went on to talk about how computers for children and adults are completely different.

For children, they want the game to be exactly the same each time they play it. Like Super Mario Brothers. Whilst older people like the unpredictability of games, which keeps them entertained. Like online games such as Call Of Duty and Battlefield.

I also made a note to myself that I should use Google to define Aporia and Epiphany to find out what they mean. These were words that he used which I did not understand.

Aporia:- The pause in the flow
Epiphany - Insight usually sudden.

I know these blogs are more suppose to be about what I thought of the lesson and not necessarily what we done. But I did really enjoy the first part and remembered it really well and understood everything.

I have a bunch of notes in the book regarding the lesson, including his name - Alan.

So much so, that it would be almost impossible to transcribe in this blog, particularly when as time went on, it become harder to understand what he was talking about.

Important words would be the follow: Redundant, Reptition, Action, Display, Cognition, Algorith, Aporia, Epipthony, Render, Cybernetics.

A name was also given which would do wonders for me. Espen J Aarseth.
I'll be sure to research that name when the time comes.

For now, I need to stretch from sitting down too long and enjoy the rest of my Birthday :)