Human Computation (Slides)

The word computer was originally used (circa 1900's) to describe a person whose job it was to compute.

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~jshaw/pick.html

"Pickerings Harem" was a group of women computer's who translated astronomical data recorded on photographic films into tables of data in standardized units.

Human Counting Machine

Rules (Decimal):
1. When tapped on your shoulder, count.
2. When you get to 10, tap the shoulder of the person next to you and "zero" your count.

File:HumanCountingMachine decimal.ogv

Results:
8, 1  =>
(reversing order)
18
Decoding:
10's  1's
1     8

File:HumanCountingMachine binary.ogv

18 = decimal representation of "eighteen"

Rules (Binary):
1. When tapped on your shoulder, raise your hand.
2. When you get tapped and your hand is raised, tap the shoulder of the person next to you put your hand down.

Results:
0, 1, 0, 0, 1 =>
(reversing order)
10010
Decoding:
16's 8's 4's 2's 1's
1    0   0   1   0

10010 = binary representation of "eighteen"