Curzon P., McOwan P.W. Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners

World Scientific Publishing, 2023. — 421 p. — ISBN 9789811264344.Колдовство с помощью вычислений: руководство по магии и вычислениям для начинающих
The team behind Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN), brings you Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners. Develop your skills as a magician while also learning the basics of Computer Science by exploring its links to magic. Each chapter explains how to do a simple magic trick, step-by-step, then uses the trick to introduce linked fundamental ideas in Computer Science in a fun way. By reading the book you will learn to do self-working tricks, be able to hold magic shows, create your own versions of tricks, and with creativity even invent your own. We cover: Self-working card tricks Magical jigsaws, boxes and other objects False shuffles and cuts False choices Magic with books and pictures Mentalism, clairvoyance and tricks with ghosts Magic built on technology Find out your friends' superpowers! You will also learn how computation underpins conjuring, answering questions like: What is computation? Why are the skills of a computational thinker, such as decomposition, abstraction and generalisation, so important? Why is data represented in different ways? How is easy-to-use software created? How does maths underpin programming? What are the basics of cyber security and privacy? Why must we all understand how computing technology affects society? The book includes profiles of computer scientists, alongside magicians with links to technology, through history. Master conjuring and thinking computationally.Computers cannot think for themselves. They just blindly follow instructions. Those instructions must always work when followed. Algorithmic Thinking is the skill of writing such instructions. Computer scientists have a similar idea to self-working tricks called algorithms. An algorithm is just a set of precise instructions that if followed exactly leads to a guaranteed e?ect. The instructions have to cover all eventualities, just as a trick does. Once you have created an algorithm that works, you don’t have to think about solving the original problem anymore or what to do to achieve that e?ect. You just blindly follow the algorithm, and the right thing happens. It is just like following the Invisible Palming instructions: the magical e?ect of apparently invisibly moving a card just happens. If you followed the steps exactly, it will have worked for you even if you had no idea how it worked. In doing the trick by following the instructions, you were acting like a computer following an algorithm. More speci?cally you were acting as a computational agent. It is something or someone following algorithmic instructions precisely and blindly.A computer cannot think for itself. It can only blindly follow instructions (the instructions are its program). They were written for it by a programmer. It does computation as a result. Computers are therefore computational agents. Computer programs are essentially algorithms written in a programming language (like Python, Java or Scratch). They are languages of instructions in a form that a computer can follow.Introduction
Part 1: Algorithmic Thinking
Chapter 1. Invisible Palming: What is an Algorithm?
Chapter 2. The Möbius Rings: Sequences
Chapter 3. Six Magical Objects: Selection
Chapter 4. Turning the Key: Repetition
Chapter 5. Calculator Conjuring: Programming Languages
Part 2: Evaluation and Logical Thinking I
Chapter 6. Wizardly Book Magic: Testing
Chapter 7. The 21-Card Trick: Logical Reasoning and Proof
Chapter 8. Mental Monte and the Trains of Thought: Reasoning by Cases
Part 3: Making It Work for People
Chapter 9. The Cyclops’ Eye: You Cannot Trust Your Eyes
Chapter 10. Magically Weighted Boxes: Your Brain Cannot be Trusted at All
Chapter 11. The Teleporting Robot: Keep It Simple Stupid
Part 4: Decomposition and Abstraction
Chapter 12. Pre-booked Picture Magic: Abstraction
Chapter 13. Trained Rice: Decomposition and Procedural Abstraction
Chapter 14. The Teleporting Top Hat: Hiding Detail and Swapping Parts
Part 5: Procedures and Procedural Abstraction
Chapter 15. Overhand Shuffle: Procedures
Chapter 16. Swapped Ends Overhand Shuffle: Specifying Procedures
Chapter 17. Ends Overhand Shuffle: New Procedures from Old and Layers of Abstraction
Chapter 18. False Top Overhand Shuffle: Parameters and Generalisation
Chapter 19. Side Jogging Shuffle: Swapping One Procedure for Another
Chapter 20. Cyclic False Cut: Libraries of Useful Procedures
Part 6: Building Bigger
Chapter 21. The False Choice: Programming Interfaces
Chapter 22. The Forcing Matrix: Functions
Chapter 23. Forced Wizardly Book Magic: Calling Functions — Building Bigger and Better
Chapter 24. Invisible Palming (Again): Sequencing Procedures Together
Part 7: Abstraction and Data Representation
Chapter 25. Drawn to You: Codes Representing Data
Chapter 26. The Roman Maths Challenge: Roman Numerals
Chapter 27. The Lottery Trick: Place-Value Number Representation
Chapter 28. Cards on Your Mind: How Computers Represent Numbers
Chapter 29. On the Power of Numbers: Representing Other Things by Numbers
Chapter 30. The Out-of-Body Experience: Error-Correcting Codes
Part 8: Human–Computer Interaction
Chapter 31. The Four Aces: Usability and Attention
Chapter 32. Supernatural Suggestion: Visual Salience
Chapter 33. The Numbers Game: Visibility of System State
Chapter 34. The Three-Way False Cut: Conceptual Models and Metaphors
Chapter 35. The Joker in the Pack: Memory
Chapter 36. Are You Psychic? User Experience and Engineering Delight
Part 9: Evaluation and Logical Thinking II
Chapter 37. Are You Psychic? (Continued): Loop Invariants and Inductive Proof
Chapter 38. The Red–Black Mind Meld: Abstraction, Algebra and Proof
Part 10: More on Computational Thinking
Chapter 39. The Doomsday Clock: Generalisation
Chapter 40. Free My Three: Divide and Conquer
Chapter 41. The Double-Destination Deception: Data Representation — Graphs and Cycles
Part 11: Cyber Security, Privacy and Society
Chapter 42. Sniff Out that Card: Steganography
Chapter 43. Classic Mentalism: Codes and Ciphers
Chapter 44. Call the Clairvoyant: Legitimate Channels
Chapter 45. Call the Clairvoyant a Second Time: Covert Channels and the Surveillance Society
Chapter 46. Reading a Personality with Hot Chocolate: Big Data and Privacy
Chapter 47. The Chevreul Pendulum: Professional Ethics
Part 12: Advanced Technology
Chapter 48. The Faerie Cage: Augmented Reality
Chapter 49. The Down-Under Deal and Robotic Reveal: Robots
Chapter 50. The One True Sovereign: Curtain Call and Creativity