What if your brain were ~* literally *~ JavaScript? Jenna Zeigen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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What if your brain were ~* literally *~ JavaScript? Jenna Zeigen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sep 04, 2023 19 likes •654 views

What if your brain were ~* literally *~ JavaScript? Jenna Zeigen RejectJS 2015 Engineering Manager @ DigitalOcean zeigenvector jenna.is/rejectjs Human JavaScript \_( )_/ (* *) Language& Imagery&

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What if your brain were ~*literally*~ JavaScript?

Jenna Zeigen RejectJS 2015

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zeigenvector Engineering Manager @ DigitalOcean

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jenna.is/rejectjs

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Human JavaScript

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ヽ(*‿*)ノ

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Language& Imagery& Perception& Thinking& Concepts& Categories& Memory& Attention& Judgement& Reasoning& Decision Making& Consciousness…

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Language& Imagery& Perception& Thinking& Concepts& Categories& Memory& Attention& Judgement& Reasoning& Decision Making& Consciousness…

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  • 1. Human Language vs. Programming Languages
  • 2. Human Concepts + Categories vs. JavaScript

Prototypes + Primitives

  • 3. Human Attention vs. the JavaScript event loop
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Language

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Language

natural language vs. programming language

  • regulation
  • evolution
  • learning
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Language

Programming languages

create and manipulate the

environment, rather than just describe it.

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Language

Humans JavaScript syntax semantics morphology phonology pragmatics

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Language

Humans JavaScript syntax semantics morphology phonology pragmatics

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Language

Humans JavaScript syntax semantics morphology phonology pragmatics

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Language context.

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-syntactic-and-lexical-grammars

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Language

“I saw the unicorn with the binoculars.”

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Language

“I saw the unicorn with the binoculars.”

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Language context.

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Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora_(linguistics)

Reference: pronouns + variables

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Anaphora: “Jenna gave a talk on the cognitive science of JavaScript, and she totally rocked it.” she it talk Jenna

Language

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Cataphora: “Since she was there last year, Jenna was excited to visit Berlin.” Berlin she there Jenna

Language

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Language

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Language

Reference: pronouns + JavaScript’s this

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Language

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-error-handling-and-language-extensions

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Language

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-error-handling-and-language-extensions

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Concepts + Categories

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“knowledge representation”

Concepts + Categories

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http://www.photogalaxy.com/pic/eventhorizon-20/yorkie_puppy.jpg

Concepts + Categories

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http://www.photogalaxy.com/pic/eventhorizon-20/yorkie_puppy.jpg

Concepts + Categories

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Concepts + Categories

classical vs. prototypal

(inheritance)

classical vs. prototype

(categorization theories)

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Concepts + Categories

classical vs. prototypal

(inheritance)

classical vs. prototype

(categorization theories)

coincidence? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Concepts + Categories

“In a computer system designed for the storage of semantic information, it is more economical to store generalized information with superset nodes, rather than with all the individual nodes to which such a generalization might apply. But such a storage system incurs the cost of additional processing time in retrieving the information. When the implications of such a model were tested for human [subjects] using well-ordered hierarchies that are part of the common culture, there was a substantial agreement between the predictions and the data.” (Collins & Quillian, 1969)

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Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

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Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

Is a canary a bird?

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Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

Is a canary an animal?

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Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

Is a canary yellow?

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Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

Does a canary breathe?

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Concepts + Categories

Is a shark a fish?

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Concepts + Categories

Prototype theory (Rosch, 1973):

  • we store an average ideal representation of a category

Exemplar theory

  • we store an instance of a category that is a

combination of all experienced exemplars

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Concepts + Categories

Basic Level Categories:

A “natural” level of categorization

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Animal Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon

  • Has skin
  • Can move around
  • Eats
  • Breathes
  • Has fins
  • Can swim
  • Has gills
  • Has wings
  • Can fly
  • Has feathers
  • Can sing
  • Is yellow
  • Has long, thin legs
  • Is tall
  • Can’t fly
  • Can bite
  • Is dangerous
  • Is pink
  • Is edible
  • Swims upstream to

lay eggs

Collins & Quillian, 1969

Bird Fish

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Concepts + Categories

Basic Level Categories:

ECMAScript language types? (Boolean, Null, Undefined, Number, String, Symbol)

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-ecmascript-data-types-and-values

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Concepts + Categories

Basic Level Categories:

ECMAScript language types? (Boolean, Null, Undefined, Number, String, Symbol)

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-ecmascript-data-types-and-values

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Concepts + Categories

Basic Level Categories:

ECMAScript types? (Boolean, Null, Undefined, Number, String, Symbol)

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-ecmascript-data-types-and-values

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Concepts + Categories

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-ecmascript-data-types-and-values

Basic Level Categories:

But what about Arrays? Functions? Dates? Promises?

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Concepts + Categories

http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html#sec-ecmascript-data-types-and-values

“Well-Known Intrinsic Objects” Basic Level Categories:

But what about Arrays? Functions? Dates? Promises?

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Attention

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Attention

  • attention as a filter
  • attention as a spotlight
  • attention as glue
  • attention as control
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Attention

blue green red

  • range
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Attention

  • attention as a filter
  • attention as a spotlight
  • attention as glue
  • attention as control
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Attention

Attention as threads!

  • attention as a filter
  • attention as a spotlight
  • attention as glue
  • attention as control
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Attention

Humans are pretty bad at multitasking:

  • inattentional blindness
  • dichotic listening task
  • shadowing

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

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Attention

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

“These are the words you aren’t supposed to be listening to.” “These are the words you need to repeat back.” “These are the words you need to repeat back.”

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Attention

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

“These are the words you need to repeat back.” “Words these are the aren’t supposed to you be to listening.” “These are the words you need to repeat back.”

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Attention

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

“These are the words you need to repeat back.”

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Attention

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

DOG

“These are the words you need to repeat back.”

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Attention

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

“dog” “These are the words you need to repeat back.”

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Attention

Humans are pretty bad at multitasking:

  • inattentional blindness
  • dichotic listening task
  • shadowing

task-specific resources

(Simons, 1999; Cherry, 1953; Triesman, 1964; Allport et al., 1972 )

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Attention

JavaScript does not multitask.

  • single-threaded
  • non-blocking
  • asynchronous
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http://itsadventuretimepeasants.tumblr.com/

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Thanks!

Me, @zeigenvector