The PB&J Algorithm

There are some things we do in life that we don’t think about – breathing, walking, checking Facebook. But actions that seem simple to us might actually be comprised of many different steps. Who thinks about opening a bottle of water on a hot day? What if someone had to write out instructions for it? It might look something like this:

1.      Firmly grasp the bottle of water in your left hand.

2.      With your right hand, grip the lid portion of the water bottle.

3.      Twist the lid with your right hand in a counter-clockwise motion

4.      Continue to turn the lid in a counter-clockwise motion until the lid is separated from the bottle.

Surely that would get that job done whenever a bottle needed to be open. But what if someone wants to use opposite hands? Maybe someone does not know the difference between clockwise and counter-clockwise motion. There are some limitation to how algorithms can be carried out, and sometimes an entirely different algorithm comes into play. What about making a sandwich? Believe it or not, when giving directions to make a PB&J it can seem like the most complicated set of directions ever given by man. There are small little intricacies that affect the entire interpretation of something. What if someone followed these directions:

1.      Separate two slices of bread.

2.      Put peanut butter on one slice.

3.      Put jelly on the other slice.

4.      Put both pieces of bread together.

That seems simple enough to anyone that has made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but in reality if these directions were interpreted literally, such as by a small child or a computer, you could have a lot of different results. You might end up with jars of peanut butter and jelly stuck between two slices of bread. The sandwich might be inside out because the maker spread the peanut butter and jelly on the outside. The PB&J algorithm looks incredibly efficient, with one minor flaw: it takes prior knowledge or context to perform like it should.

Going through life, we are often faced with problems that we have help with or are described to us so that we can work through them. From a computational perspective, this is the act of others passing algorithms down to us so that we may use them in the future. Of course our brains don’t work in ones and zeros, but think of it like writing a new program to be used on a computer. It’s this passage of information that can be used in the future to accomplish tasks. Many times, we do it without thinking. Teachers are constantly sharing their “algorithms” so that they can be used in the future.

Whether it’s something as simple as breathing, or something seemingly simple such as opening a water bottle, our life is made of algorithms – those sets of directions used to accomplish a set of tasks that can range from a few simple motions to loads of information.

Approximately 20 steps should be taken to make a correct and edible peanut butter and jelly sandwich…what are the chances of something so simple being so complex?