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Digital Dynamics
Metaphors and terms from the information age and computing
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Digital dynamics, complex systems, and modern cognition
Metaphors and terms from the information age and computing
18 wordsVocabulary for understanding how things interact, evolve, and emerge
18 wordsPsychology, metacognition, and the study of thinking
17 wordsConcepts from Shannon's theory of communication and information
12 wordsThe study of language structure and meaning
12 wordsThe structure and mechanisms of thought and mental processing
12 wordsPhilosophical inquiry into consciousness, thought, and mental phenomena
12 wordsConcepts from artificial neural networks and deep learning
12 wordsKnowledge, belief, confidence, and the limits of knowing
12 wordsForms of inference and logical thinking
12 wordsHow meaning is conveyed, negotiated, and understood
12 wordsCore vocabulary of chip design, fabrication, and the semiconductor industry
28 wordsCore vocabulary for consistency models, faults, phenomena, and testing in distributed systems
86 wordsComplete vocabulary list for easy reference and copy-paste.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| signal-to-noise | the ratio of useful information to irrelevant data |
| bandwidth | the energy or mental capacity required to deal with a situation |
| latency | the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction |
| protocol | a set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data |
| abstraction | the quality of dealing with ideas rather than events; hiding complexity |
| interoperability | the ability of computer systems or software to exchange and make use of information |
| scalability | the capacity to be changed in size or scale |
| granularity | the scale or level of detail present in a set of data |
| recursion | the repeated application of a recursive procedure or definition |
| algorithm | a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations |
| token | a tangible representation of a fact, quality, or feeling |
| default | a preselected option adopted when no alternative is specified |
| beta | a trial version of software; a preliminary stage |
| deprecated | regarded as obsolete and best avoided |
| batching | grouping tasks to be performed together |
| encryption | the process of converting information or data into a code |
| brute force | relying on sheer power or repetition rather than ingenuity |
| sandbox | an isolated environment for testing |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| emergence | the process where complex patterns arise from simple interactions |
| feedback loop | a system structure where outputs circle back as inputs |
| nonlinearity | a relationship where output is not directly proportional to input |
| antifragility | the property of systems that benefit from shocks and volatility |
| critical mass | the minimum amount required to start or maintain a venture |
| tipping point | the point at which a series of small changes becomes significant enough to cause a larger change |
| entropy | a measure of disorder or randomness in a system |
| homeostasis | the tendency toward a stable equilibrium |
| redundancy | the inclusion of extra components for reliability |
| bottleneck | a point of congestion in a system that slows down the overall process |
| catalyst | an agent that provokes or speeds up significant change or action |
| synergy | interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect greater than the sum of individual elements |
| hysteresis | dependence of the state of a system on its history |
| network effect | phenomenon where a product gains value as more people use it |
| second-order effect | the consequence of a consequence |
| resilience | the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties |
| fractal | a complex pattern where the same pattern occurs at every scale |
| black swan | an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected and has potentially severe consequences |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| metacognition | awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes |
| cognitive dissonance | the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes |
| neuroplasticity | the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections |
| heuristic | a mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly |
| confirmation bias | the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs |
| Dunning-Kruger effect | a cognitive bias where people with low ability overestimate their ability |
| mental model | an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world |
| flow state | a mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed |
| cognitive load | the amount of working memory resources used |
| priming | a phenomenon whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus |
| framing effect | a cognitive bias where people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations |
| loss aversion | people's tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains |
| anchoring | a cognitive bias where an individual relies too heavily on an initial piece of information |
| liminality | the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage |
| epistemic humility | a humble attitude toward one's own beliefs and knowledge |
| steelmanning | the practice of addressing the strongest possible version of an opponent's argument |
| hallucination | a perception of something not present |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| entropy | a measure of uncertainty or randomness in information; the average information content |
| redundancy | the use of more information than necessary; repetition that aids error correction |
| compression | reducing the size of data by eliminating redundancy |
| encoding | converting information from one form to another for transmission or storage |
| decoding | extracting the original information from an encoded form |
| signal-to-noise ratio | the proportion of meaningful information to irrelevant interference |
| bandwidth | the capacity of a channel to transmit information; cognitive processing capacity |
| lossless | preserving all original information through transformation |
| lossy | sacrificing some information for efficiency or simplicity |
| channel capacity | the maximum rate at which information can be reliably transmitted |
| bit | the fundamental unit of information; a binary choice |
| mutual information | the amount of information one variable contains about another |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| semantics | the study of meaning in language; what words and sentences signify |
| syntax | the rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences |
| pragmatics | how context influences the interpretation of meaning |
| morphology | the study of word formation and internal structure |
| deixis | words whose meaning depends on context (I, here, now, this) |
| anaphora | using a word to refer back to something mentioned earlier |
| polysemy | a single word having multiple related meanings |
| disambiguation | resolving which meaning is intended when multiple are possible |
| compositionality | the meaning of a whole derived from its parts and their arrangement |
| lexicon | the vocabulary of a language; a mental dictionary of words |
| phoneme | the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning |
| morpheme | the smallest meaningful unit in a language |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| attention | the cognitive process of selectively focusing on relevant information |
| working memory | the system for temporarily holding and manipulating information |
| retrieval | accessing stored information from memory |
| chunking | grouping individual pieces of information into larger units |
| priming | exposure to one stimulus influencing response to a subsequent stimulus |
| spreading activation | activation of one concept triggering related concepts in a network |
| pattern recognition | identifying regularities or structures in sensory input |
| schema | a mental framework for organizing and interpreting information |
| cognitive load | the total amount of mental effort being used in working memory |
| automaticity | performing tasks without conscious attention due to practice |
| inhibition | suppressing irrelevant information or prepotent responses |
| metacognition | thinking about one's own thinking; awareness of cognitive processes |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| intentionality | the property of mental states being about or directed at something |
| qualia | the subjective, conscious qualities of experience (the 'what it's like') |
| representation | a mental state that stands for or depicts something else |
| functionalism | the view that mental states are defined by their functional roles |
| emergence | complex properties arising from simpler components that lack those properties |
| substrate independence | the idea that mental processes don't depend on specific physical material |
| symbol grounding | connecting abstract symbols to real-world meaning and experience |
| phenomenal consciousness | the subjective, experiential aspect of mental states |
| propositional attitude | a mental state relating a person to a proposition (believes that, hopes that) |
| dualism | the view that mind and body are fundamentally different substances |
| physicalism | the view that everything, including mind, is ultimately physical |
| epiphenomenalism | the view that mental events are caused by physical events but have no causal power |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| transformer | a neural network architecture using self-attention for sequence processing |
| embedding | a dense vector representation of discrete items like words |
| attention mechanism | a technique allowing models to focus on relevant parts of input |
| latent space | a compressed representation where similar items are close together |
| token | a unit of text (word, subword, or character) processed by a model |
| weight | a learnable parameter that determines connection strength in a network |
| activation | the output of a neuron after applying a non-linear function |
| gradient | the direction and rate of steepest increase of a function |
| inference | using a trained model to make predictions on new data |
| fine-tuning | adapting a pre-trained model for a specific task |
| context window | the maximum amount of text a model can process at once |
| softmax | a function converting raw scores into a probability distribution |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| calibration | the alignment between confidence levels and actual accuracy |
| epistemic humility | acknowledging the limits of one's own knowledge |
| hedging | qualifying statements to acknowledge uncertainty |
| confabulation | producing false information without intent to deceive; filling gaps |
| hallucination | generating plausible but false or unsupported content |
| grounding | connecting claims to verifiable sources or evidence |
| epistemic status | the degree of certainty or evidence supporting a claim |
| credence | a degree of belief in a proposition, often expressed as probability |
| uncertainty quantification | measuring and communicating the degree of uncertainty in predictions |
| known unknowns | things we are aware we don't know |
| Knightian uncertainty | uncertainty that cannot be quantified with probabilities |
| overconfidence | having more certainty than warranted by evidence |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| deduction | reasoning from general premises to a logically certain conclusion |
| induction | inferring general principles from specific observations |
| abduction | inferring the best explanation for observed evidence |
| analogical reasoning | drawing conclusions based on similarities between cases |
| counterfactual | considering what would happen if something were different |
| inference chain | a sequence of reasoning steps leading to a conclusion |
| modus ponens | if P then Q; P is true; therefore Q is true |
| modus tollens | if P then Q; Q is false; therefore P is false |
| syllogism | a form of deductive reasoning with two premises and a conclusion |
| heuristic | a mental shortcut that enables quick but imperfect judgments |
| satisficing | accepting a good-enough option rather than seeking the optimal one |
| transitivity | if A relates to B and B relates to C, then A relates to C |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| illocutionary | the intended action performed by an utterance (requesting, promising) |
| perlocutionary | the effect an utterance has on the listener |
| implicature | what is suggested but not explicitly stated |
| speech act | an utterance that performs an action (promising, apologizing, ordering) |
| common ground | shared knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions between communicators |
| turn-taking | the system by which speakers alternate in conversation |
| maxim of quantity | provide as much information as needed, but not more |
| maxim of relevance | make contributions relevant to the current exchange |
| maxim of manner | be clear, brief, and orderly; avoid obscurity and ambiguity |
| presupposition | something assumed to be true for an utterance to make sense |
| register | a variety of language appropriate to a particular context |
| code-switching | alternating between languages or varieties within a conversation |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| transistor | a semiconductor device that amplifies or switches electrical signals; the fundamental building block of modern electronics |
| semiconductor | a material whose electrical conductivity falls between that of a conductor and an insulator, enabling precise control of current |
| wafer | a thin, circular disc of semiconductor material (typically silicon) on which integrated circuits are fabricated |
| die | a single chip cut from a wafer; the individual integrated circuit before packaging |
| lithography | the process of printing microscopic circuit patterns onto silicon using light or other radiation |
| doping | introducing controlled impurities into a semiconductor to alter its electrical properties |
| process node | a generation of chip manufacturing technology, historically named for its smallest feature size in nanometers |
| yield | the percentage of functional dies on a wafer; a key measure of manufacturing efficiency and profitability |
| tape-out | the final step of chip design, when the completed layout is sent to a foundry for manufacturing |
| foundry | a semiconductor manufacturing facility that fabricates chips designed by other companies |
| fabless | describing a chip company that designs semiconductors but outsources all manufacturing to a foundry |
| Moore's Law | the observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every two years, driving decades of computing progress |
| SoC | System on a Chip; an integrated circuit that combines all components of a computer—CPU, GPU, memory controller, and I/O—onto a single die |
| chiplet | a modular, small die designed to connect with other chiplets in a single package, enabling flexible chip assembly |
| EUV | Extreme Ultraviolet lithography; a technology using 13.5nm wavelength light to print the finest circuit patterns, essential for advanced nodes |
| FinFET | a transistor architecture where the channel rises vertically like a fin, enabling better current control at small scales |
| IP core | a reusable, pre-designed circuit block licensed from a third party and integrated into a custom chip |
| ASIC | Application-Specific Integrated Circuit; a chip custom-designed for a single task, optimizing performance and efficiency |
| photoresist | a light-sensitive material applied to wafers that hardens or dissolves when exposed to light, enabling pattern transfer during lithography |
| deposition | the process of adding thin layers of material to a wafer surface to build up circuit structures |
| etch | the selective removal of material layers from a wafer to define circuit features |
| packaging | encasing a die in a protective housing with electrical connections to the outside world |
| thermal envelope | the maximum amount of heat a chip is designed to dissipate under sustained load, measured in watts |
| EDA | Electronic Design Automation; software tools used to design, simulate, and verify integrated circuits before manufacturing |
| reticle | the photomask containing one or more chip patterns, used in a stepper to expose those patterns onto a wafer |
| IDM | Integrated Device Manufacturer; a semiconductor company that both designs and manufactures its own chips |
| HBM | High Bandwidth Memory; a stacked DRAM technology that places memory dies directly atop or beside a processor for extreme data throughput |
| back-end-of-line | the stage of chip fabrication that creates the metal interconnect layers connecting transistors to each other |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| dependency | a relationship between two operations that establishes ordering constraints, such as process, write-read, or real-time dependency |
| definite error | an operation return indicating the operation definitely did not happen, such as a transaction abort |
| indefinite error | an operation return where the outcome is uncertain; the operation may or may not have executed, exemplified by timeouts |
| predicate | a condition identifying a set of objects rather than a single item, such as all rows matching a WHERE clause |
| process | a logically single-threaded state machine participating in a distributed system |
| process dependency | a relationship between subsequent operations performed by the same process |
| real-time dependency | a relationship between operations where one ends before another begins |
| read-write dependency | a relationship where operation A reads a version and operation B writes the next version of the same object |
| session dependency | a relationship between operations within a session performed in total order |
| version | a specific state an object assumes at a point in time during execution |
| version order | an ordering over object versions encoding the sequence each object progressed through |
| write-read dependency | a relationship where operation A writes a version that operation B subsequently reads |
| write-write dependency | a relationship where operation A writes a version that operation B overwrites |
| consistency model | a set of allowed histories constraining which operations are permissible and their ordering |
| causal consistency | ensures all processes observe causally related operations on objects in identical order across the system |
| eventual consistency | after updates cease, sufficient time and messaging ensure every node reaches identical final values |
| history | a collection of operations performed by a system including process information and timing details |
| linearizability | operations appear to execute atomically in a total order consistent with real-time ordering on single objects |
| monotonic atomic view | strengthens read committed by requiring that once a transaction observes another's effects, it observes all of them |
| monotonic reads | each process observes a monotonically advancing system view; once a write is observed, it remains visible |
| monotonic writes | if a single process performs two writes, all other processes observe them in that same order |
| read atomic | ensures atomic visibility of transaction updates; either all or none of a transaction's writes are observed |
| read committed | a consistency level that prohibits dirty writes, aborted reads, intermediate reads, and cyclic information flow |
| read uncommitted | one of the weakest consistency models; prohibits only dirty writes but permits dirty reads and other phenomena |
| read your writes | if a process writes a value, its subsequent reads must observe the effects of that write |
| repeatable read | strengthens read committed by additionally prohibiting single-object anti-dependency cycles |
| serializability | all transactions appear to execute in some total serial order, prohibiting dirty writes, dirty reads, and anti-dependency cycles |
| sequential consistency | operations appear in a total order consistent with each process's order but not necessarily real-time order |
| snapshot isolation | each transaction receives an isolated snapshot of the database; it commits only if no concurrent writes exist to the same keys |
| strong consistency | a broad term covering models including sequential, linearizable, and serializable consistency |
| strong serializability | strengthens serializability by requiring the apparent transaction order to match real-time order |
| strong session serializability | strengthens serializability by additionally prohibiting session phenomena within each process |
| strong snapshot isolation | strengthens snapshot isolation by additionally prohibiting real-time phenomena |
| writes follow reads | reading a value seals the past; later writes must take effect after the writes that were observed |
| high availability | an inconsistently defined term meaning either majority availability or total availability depending on context |
| total availability | every non-faulty node executes any operation even in the presence of node or network failures |
| majority availability | operations execute when nodes comprise a majority and can communicate with one another |
| sticky availability | a client receives a response if executing against state that reflects its past transactions, even during failures |
| read skew | a transaction observes part but not all of another transaction's writes, producing an inconsistent view |
| write skew | two transactions each write different objects, with each failing to observe the other's writes |
| fractured read | one transaction writes two objects; another reads the current version of one but an older version of the other |
| dirty write | transactions overwrite one another forming a cycle linked purely by write-write dependencies (G0) |
| aborted read | an aborted transaction's write is visible to a committed transaction (G1a) |
| intermediate read | a transaction reads a version from the middle of another transaction rather than its final committed write (G1b) |
| cyclic information flow | transactions observe or overwrite each other's writes in a cyclic pattern (G1c) |
| garbage read | a database returns an object version not produced by any write, often from corruption or race conditions |
| lost update | a committed transaction's effects are lost due to another transaction's concurrent write to the same object (P4) |
| dirty read | one transaction reads data written by another before that transaction has completed (P1) |
| non-repeatable read | a transaction modifies data that another ongoing transaction previously read (P2) |
| phantom read | one transaction modifies rows matching a predicate that another ongoing transaction had read (P3) |
| stale read | an operation begins after another ends but appears to execute before the prior operation |
| amnesia | a node forgets information; total amnesia means forgetting everything, partial amnesia occurs after crashes |
| bit rot | gradual storage corruption from cosmic rays, thermal stress, or media degradation over time |
| byzantine fault | a node takes arbitrary actions including malicious ones; requires more than two-thirds loyal nodes for consensus |
| crash | a node stops executing code until it is restarted |
| crash-stop | a failure model where a node stops executing and never recovers |
| crash-recover | a failure model where a node stops executing code and later restarts from durable state |
| clock drift | the difference in rates at which clocks advance, causing clock skew to increase over time |
| clock skew | the instantaneous difference between clocks on different processes; affects correctness of systems relying on wall clocks |
| latent sector error | a storage fault where disk sectors are damaged and the error is detected or reported on read |
| lost write | a storage system informs the layer above that a write occurred when it actually has not |
| torn write | a storage system stores only part of a requested write, leaving data in a partially updated state |
| memory corruption | data read from memory differs from what was written, caused by cosmic rays or hardware defects |
| message corruption | an arriving message differs from the sent message due to cable degradation or electromagnetic interference |
| message delay | the time for a message to travel from sender to recipient; unbounded in asynchronous networks |
| message duplication | a single message arrives multiple times due to routers, retries, or log replays |
| message reordering | messages arrive in a different order from their sending due to variable latency in asynchronous networks |
| message omission | a message is sent but never received; indistinguishable from infinite delay in asynchronous systems |
| network partition | a pattern of message omission where a network link loses all messages between two sets of nodes |
| pause | a process halts for some duration then resumes; in asynchronous systems, pauses can be indefinitely long |
| storage corruption | a storage device silently returns incorrect data for reads without signaling any error |
| misdirected write | data is written to the wrong storage location, overwriting unrelated existing data |
| misdirected read | a storage device returns data from the wrong location rather than the address requested |
| concurrent testing | tests that execute multiple logical operations simultaneously across system nodes to expose race conditions |
| constraint programming | encodes an operation history as a constraint problem for a SAT solver to find a legal interpretation |
| cycle detection | searches for dependency cycles in an operation history to demonstrate consistency violations |
| deterministic simulation testing | simulation testing using deterministic simulated layers, enabling exact reproduction of failures |
| example-based testing | writing specific inputs with expected specific outputs, contrasting with generative property-based testing |
| fault injection | deliberately injecting failures during a test to verify the system does not violate its invariants |
| fuzz testing | submitting random inputs and verifying that specified properties hold across all of them |
| guided search | generative testing that chooses interesting inputs using system feedback through oracles |
| metamorphic testing | a generative technique that transforms a test input and verifies the output's relationship to the original |
| oracle | a component that provides information determining test correctness, such as detecting crashes or comparing to a reference |
| property-based testing | generates random inputs, applies them to the system, and verifies that a specified property always holds |
| shrinking | a property-based testing technique that reduces a large failing input to the smallest case that still reproduces the failure |
| simulation testing | simulates system components rather than using real hardware, networks, and operating systems |