Science of Technology

For Jalen, there are two kinds of people: people who like the Eagles and people who don’t. If you don’t like the Eagles, he doesn’t want to be your friend.

His Friendship detector starts with a single switch, labeled, do you like the Eagles–yes or no.

Then Jalen realizes that there are some Eagles fans that he really doesn’t like, so he sets up another question. Do you make me laugh?

Now he has two switches, and the light only goes on if both switches are connected.

Although there are only two switches, Jalen has divided the world into four types of people:

The more he thinks about it Jalen realizes that there are some Eagles fans that he does like, even though they are not funny. So he sets up another question. Are you a good listener?

Now he has three switches, and the light goes on in a number of different ways.

With this one question, Jalen has divided people into eight (8) types, because each of the four types of people can be subdivided according to whether they are a good listener. A new type of table, called a Truth Table will be helpful to keep track of them all.

For some types of people (like #1 and #8), the answer will be obvious. Some of the other types (like #4 and #5) might take some more thought.

You might be able to picture adding one more question, one more switch, and doubling this chart again!