Things That Make Us Smart

In the Norman reading and/ or Human Computation video, what did you find interesting and non- obvious?

I was intrigued by the discussion of Roman/ Arabic numerical representation in the article by Donald Norman in Things That Make us Smart. It never occured to me that there was a time when people made a decision about which number system would be used. Additionally, I would not have suspected that the reasoning behind the ultimate decision was based on visual computation. Of course this makes complete sense- in real world situations you use a tool that will help you to achieve a result efficiently and with the greatest merit. The reading/ homework as a whole contemplated perception, representation and solutions. The choice of the kind of "language" that you use to communicate a mathematical problem in is a rudimentary element to the overall process. Although not distinctly related, I was reminded of a book called the Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, in which the history of the number and concept of zero was discussed. At the emergence of zero- people were scared to use it and actually denied it. I think that it is amazing. The idea that there is so much in the world that is unknown, or that we appeared from nothing is a groundbreaking concept. Until that point numerical representations began with the number one. This fact presented an innate hubris to the existence of man. Now that I am learning about arrays in python and I see how the method of recalling the first item in a list is to type zero, I am beginning to feel like the "anti- zero" delegation of humans. I understand it conceptually, however it's really confusing for me. I guess that it is a matter of perception and what method of representation is succinct and clear enough to produce the results that I want and in turn will impact more users (more than just myself).