Blog Post 2

A task I perform everyday is making my self lunch. This could be considered a simple algorithm. If I had to explain the steps in order to someone, I would start with making a sandwich. The process for this taking the bread out of the pantry, meat and cheese out of the fridge, and a plate out of a cabinet, I then place the plate on my table, take two slices of bread out of the package after opening it and lay them out on the plate, I then take a slice or two of meat out of its package after opening it, lay them on one of the slices of bread, take a piece of cheese out of its wrapper and place it on the meat, and place the other slice of bread on top of that. I then put away the package of meat and bread, and throw away the cheese wrapper. I sometimes will also grab a soda out of the fridge and have that with my meal. Once done eating I throw the soda can away if I had one and place my plate in the dishwasher. I feel that describing these actions to a robot would be rather simple, because of how easy this process is. A computer definitely could be programmed or built to follow this procedure, which would definitely be interesting and convenient to have something that makes lunch for you. Some variables in the equations for lunch making include; whether or not I want cheese and if I do, what cheese I use, sometimes I just use ham, other days I use a mix of ham and roast beef. Other days I do not even make a sandwich and just make noodles or soup. A daily algorithm that would be difficult for a computer to follow would be my job, there are lots of unknown variables that happen constantly. Working at a retail environment, there are varying amounts of customers each day and every day I have to perform different tasks, which have many ways of going about accomplishing them. While it would be easy to teach someone else how to perform my job, I do not believe that a current robot or computer could accomplish it. While there are every present and changing variables that keep me from accomplishing a task at work, I do not believe that there are any limitations on how fast I make lunch and I don’t think there is any real way of speeding up the process.