Comments on: Grab your array neighbor and sort!

Grab your array neighbor and sort!

odinsdream — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:27:56 -0800

Like something out of Neal Stephenson's Anathem: Sorting Algorithms as Folk Dances

By: tylermoody

tylermoody — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:34:43 -0800

That's not what sorting algorithms sound like.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:35:15 -0800

Anathem was exactly my thought when I saw these earlier today! Except now thinking about it a bit more, I'm not sure that's true. In Anathem, the computations are all "inside" the dance. At least, I assume so. The numbers are encoded in positions and so forth, so they are manipulable by the algorithm. Here the numbers are written on the dancers and can't be accessed by the dance. The dance illustrates the sort but doesn't perform the sort.

By: CaptApollo

CaptApollo — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:09:08 -0800

That didn't clear things up at all! I'm not sure if my confusion comes from my poor grasp of sorting algorithms or my poor grasp of folk dancing.

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:09:21 -0800

I think that this should be a challenge in the next Miss America/Miss Universe/Miss whatever pageant.

By: Nanukthedog

Nanukthedog — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:12:27 -0800

Let me be the first to say that th length of the YouTube videos in no way represents the efficiency of the search. SelectSort at a 7:07 as n^2 and InsertSort at:4:04 also as an n^2 make me an unhappy camper. The ShellSort at 4:31 is a pretty high bar to set for nlog^2n. I dread the dizzying pace of a BinaryTreeSort! If you take the time to choreograph the search order, choreograph the speed too!

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:17:47 -0800

Next, please present Hall's Theorem.

By: secondtolastresort

secondtolastresort — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:20:08 -0800

Anathem. Good glory it took me a long time to plow through that fucker. Well worth it, though. This is fascinating.

By: gurple

gurple — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:24:10 -0800

Several times in my life, I've thought, "that's the nerdiest thing I'll ever see. I can die now". I'm glad I hung around this long.

By: sideshow

sideshow — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:43:59 -0800

For all of those people who didn't read Anathem: The protagonist in the story belonged to a monastery type group that, amongst other things, solved complex mathematical problems by getting in groups and chanting Georgian-type chants about them.

By: gurple

gurple — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:54:18 -0800

... solved complex mathematical problems by getting in groups and chanting ... I don't know, did they? I read Anathem and enjoyed most of it (until the usual Stephenson ending-a-book catastrophe), and to me it seemed more like they were demonstrating proofs through the chants, rather than actually solving new problems.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:01:01 -0800

I must've slept through that part of the book.

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:14:29 -0800

I think these Hasidic Jews could handle a cocktail sort.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:18:52 -0800

Bozo sort.

By: warbaby

warbaby — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:42:33 -0800

Seems a pity to stop at the bubble sort. Needs more sorts.

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:57:31 -0800

They did heap sort too, but things got messy.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:17:57 -0800

SelectSort at a 7:07 as n^2 and InsertSort at:4:04 also as an n^2 make me an unhappy camper. You are going to be even more sad when you examine the graphs of y=x vs y=x² in the range of 0-1. GOD HIMSELF is against you!

By: DU

DU — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:19:11 -0800

it seemed more like they were demonstrating proofs through the chants, rather than actually solving new problems. They were chanting to demonstrate recent results that they had derived back home, also by chanting.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:17:23 -0800

This has me fucking stoked and now I think I need to read Anathem. I guess I'm a bigger dance nerd than SF nerd. But this comes as a shock to me, too.

By: Mchelly

Mchelly — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:36:39 -0800

I've always suspected Monty Python's Fish-Slapping Dance is actually a demonstration of string theory.

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:48:05 -0800

I can't believe I just wasted O(n) time watching that

By: DU

DU — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:30:11 -0800

now I think I need to read Anathem. 1) Yes, you do. 2) But don't get your hopes about the dancing part. It isn't big or detailed.

By: Twang

Twang — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:10:21 -0800

Why do they keep calling for Heinrich Heirovny?