I understand that machines fail for numerous physical reasons, however, I’ve never understood how computer or programs that were working fine all along can suddenly crash or break down if there’s no moving parts and the code hasn’t been otherwise recently patched or updated. This has bugged me for over 25 years and it finally occurred to me that I should it.
In: Technology
But there are moving parts – electrons. In fact, there are a lot of moving parts, easily in the billions. Imagine them as water running through a system of channels an be gates that have to open at just the right time to create the perfect combination of open/close across the whole system so it does exactly what it’s supposed to be. What’s more, the gates are controlled by the very water they are guiding through the channels.
So what software is is creating a set of rules that define what the gates do under what circumstances. But there also are billions of gates, and by extension an even greater number of combinations they can be in… but as soon as a an open/close combination is reached that is not defined in the rules, what is going to happen?
Without a rule, the water goes where it wants. I’m the best case, this will result in a position that is covered again. But how probable is that with the myriad of possible combinations?
Now with computers, there are a whole hierarchy of systems in place that will prevent the whole thing coming to a stop – a program may be terminated, but you won’t have it delete your hard drive. But the point is that computers are a thing of mind blowing complexity deep down.
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