First we will define the terms hardware and software for this blog post.
Hardware : Data is stored in very tiny electronic circuits inside things that are not alive, example Hard Disk, RAM. In hardware devices memory/data corruption rate is high.
Software : Data is stored as electo-magnetic current in animal cells, like Human brain. Here memory corruption is very low.
Difference between Error and Mistake ?
| Error | Mistake |
| Not getting desired result or output | You miss a take or attempt. And it was possible to avoid failure if we took the correct course of action in the past. Mistake means next time, there will be progress in resolving errors. |
| Is a sign of Dumbness. | Is a sign of intelligence. |
| If a process creating errors and no mistakes, then the chances of success are very low. | If a process is making a mistake, there are higher chances of it being successful |
| It is generally a single event | It involves a chain of multiple errors |
| It makes the process fully unoperational, as it fails to perform the only task it was supposed to do | There is partial completion and partial unoperation. As it redirects to another course of action |
To solve a problem, we have to increase the “known” and decrease the “unknown”, for higher chances of success. Example, lets say you went to a new city to pickup/deliver a product. But you are totally new to the city. And when you reach the pickup/delivery point. It is closed, or due to some reason you reached the location, but still cannot complete the task and you failed. Till now what has happened is “Known Increases and Unknown decreases”. Becuase you know that you cannot deliver, so “known is increased”, but you also learn the way to the city and nearby areas like cafe, gas station etc (this decreases unknown). So if you get another chance the next day, becuase your “unknown decreased”, you will reach the place faster, or could do something else for your benefit like may be refuel your vehicle.
Now we will list failures for hardware and software.
| Hardware Failure | Software Failure |
| When machines encounter an error, the “known” increases slightly, but “unknown” remains the same. As its memory is not very stable. | When software encounters an error, because it has a more stable memory the “known” increases, and the “unknown” decreases. |
| In machines the number of fallbacks, or alternate paths to counter an error are very less. So, as it does not have enough options it cannot make more mistakes, because of lack of options. | Due to more number of attempts, it learns, and makes more attempts to solve the error. It may MISs again, due to failure. So as it is TAKing multiple attempts and failing, it commits a MISTAK (mistake). |
| There is very less chance of a machine making a mistake, but more chances of it erroring out. | In software the chances of “error” are high on a universal scale. But chances of “mistakes” are on the higher side. It is commonly said that “making mistakes is human” and is a sign of intelligence. |
| Machines carry very little decision making capability and intelligence. | Software can make decision and are intelligent |
| Number of mistakes are Low | Number of mistakes are High |
| Errors in hardware data is more | Errors in software data is less |
That is why human cells are the most advanced, dependent and reliable piece of database in this universe.
Importance of Machines:
One human brain is small enough to hold all the data needed by the “Information Technology” sector. So to make sure that all the machines work properly, the entire database is spread across multiple human brains across the globe. As the data is physically spread across huge distances, this is where machines make the data transfer easy because of very low chances of mistakes in “Communication and Networking”. Moreover they can move much faster than human beings, and their operations can be easily automated requiring almost no manual intervention.
There is a downside that machines error out more, this is why there are more number of failed machines being replaced everyday by better working machines.
Machines like a PC, laptops are the best resources to store data only temporarily as a cache. This data has to be overridden by software using the internet and network servers. So the cached data is cleaned and updated by human brain driven data. Some examples that you must have noticed are when your mobile app gets updated automatically, or windows and browser updates happening frequently. The origin of all the data that we can see and experience today is actually stored inside a human brain. Machines provide only a temporary path as an input and output device.
So your brain is the most powerful supercomputer in this universe!
Entrepreneur 