Earlier quoted context omitted.
Error correction codes and transaction models have existed before computers have, of course the schemes people have settled with before computers were designed to fit within the limits of what people could work with back then, with no computers to do the quick math for them. People have used a simple form of error detection checksum when copying books manually (like the Bible) thousands of years ago. Retransmission r…
> Of course anything that requires a modern CPU to compute wouldn't be feasible, but the basics of it, the seed, was. I still believe that what Hamming did in coding theory and the Reed-Solomon codes, etc., are 'basic' and new since computers. But, you are correct that transmission error detection and correction were old needs with old solutions. E.g., there was parity with teletypewriters and old paper tape for erro…
Each one of us struggles to add something to the stream of human thought, and it's hard every time, and it's worth praise every time, but it's interesting to see it all as a part of a bigger picture, in that computers are just systems like any. They have certain properties emphasized, and certain other properties de-emphasized right now, but that's it.
I actually didn't go far enough in my error detection and correction examples, I only went few thousand years back. There's an even more ancient example, going back millions of years... the process of DNA replication itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofreading_(Biology)
One shouldn't be surprised to discover that some cellular process might have stumbled onto heap sorting, either.
System design is bigger and older than any of us. To think otherwise is just a sign our culture is just too young yet to appreciate where we fit in the world. In some ways, it seems we still think we're at the center of the Universe.
We're not inventing algorithms, just rediscovering them. This doesn't make any of the achievements of our inventors any lesser, but it's good to keep in mind the big picture. It helps us, among other things, to look in more places for inspiration and knowledge, and in turn, create better systems.