18 MAY 2017 by ideonexus
Habituation and Novelty
Beginning in infancy and throughout the life span, humans are motivated by newness, change, and excitement. Habituation, the tendency to lose interest in a repeated event and gain interest in a new one, is one of the most fundamental human reflexes. If the thermostat were to suddenly turn the air conditioning on, you would hear the loud humming sound begin, but within minutes you couldn’t even hear it if you tried. Habituation, a fundamental property of the nervous system, provides mechanisms...29 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Simple Explanation of Big O Notation
The simplest definition I can give for Big-O notation is this: Big-O notation is a relative representation of the complexity of an algorithm. There are some important and deliberately chosen words in that sentence: relative: you can only compare apples to apples. You can't compare an algorithm to do arithmetic multiplication to an algorithm that sorts a list of integers. But two algorithms that do arithmetic operations (one multiplication, one addition) will tell you something meaningful; rep...Folksonomies: computer science algorithms
Folksonomies: computer science algorithms
One of the best, down-to-Earth explanations of a concept that can get incredibly complex.
17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Sequence Hypothesis and The Central Dogma
My own thinking (and that of many of my colleagues) is based on two general principles, which I shall call the Sequence Hypothesis and the Central Dogma. The direct evidence for both of them is negligible, but I have found them to be of great help in getting to grips with these very complex problems. I present them here in the hope that others can make similar use of them. Their speculative nature is emphasized by their names. It is an instructive exercise to attempt to build a useful theory ...Crick describes two guiding principles of understanding how DNA produces proteins. The second is interesting for the use of the term 'information.'