asynchronous life
Today was the second and final day of a class that was offered at Xilinx on “Asynchronous VLSI Design.” It was give by Dr. Ran Ginosar from the Technion in Israel. The class was excellent and I learned a lot (although it did start quite early, by my standards… but there were plenty of caffeinated drinks available.)
The topic got me thinking about life, is it asynch or synch? Obviously its asynch, but we must “synch-in” many times throughout the day. Actually, we synch every time we look at out watch, or any other clock; furthermore, we are synching to familiar timely events. For example, when I hear the cart of fresh coffee pass by my cube in the morning (contrary to what it may seem, I’m more of a tea drinker, but this was a good example.) However, our life is a continuous chain of random and asynch events.
Think of the new email popping into the mailbox, someone breaking on the way home or the surprise phone call informing you were just promoted. Most events in our life are asynch; even the whimsical decision to go bowling. So why do we need clocks for? To synchronize with other people.
Imagine a world comprised of a single person, would she need a watch? No. There’s really no point for a universal synch because she needs to synch only with herself; no one is waiting for her at 8am sharp for a seminar.
So our life is asynchronous, but we must universally synchronize it in order to live with others.
February 11th, 2005 at 7:59 am
Absolutely right, I always said that the world would be ideal without people.