Data Structures IRL — Part 3 Queues and linked lists are data | Professor M

Data Structures IRL — Part 3

Queues and linked lists are data structures we use to stand in lines. Standing in lines is so natural at this point that we don’t even think about it. But how did the very first standing-in-line experience originate?

This goes back to the question of where the truth comes from. Perhaps, from a combination of theory and empirics? Another way of saying this is deduction (from idea to observation) and induction (from observation to idea). You have an idea and then spin it to make a prediction. Some evidence confirming the prediction is consistent with the initial idea being correct. Good. We may then use this evidence to produce more ideas and use these for more predictions. The longer this chain is, the more accurate our understanding of the world is. (I talk about this interplay between theory and empirics, among other topics, in this longer talk in Russian.)

But, in the above reasoning, where does the very initial idea come from? What’s the source of the firstmost epiphany that gives rise to subsequent conclusions?

Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) (Wiki page) reveals a fascinating, highly visual stand on this. Evolution leaps forward thanks to encounters with alien monoliths. One such encounter (YouTube video) allowed a tribe of hominids to have an epiphany that bones can be used as weapons (YouTube video). Thus, the first tool was invented.

Interestingly, Nora Ephron’s “Michael” (1996) (Wiki page) takes a somewhat similar position on standing in lines. The movie’s central character, Archangel Michael, was sent to Earth to do various tasks. At one moment, he reveals in passing that on one of his prior visits, he “invented standing in line.”

I wonder who planted the seed that gave rise to the tree data structure (Wiki page).