On 8/18/2015 10:58 AM, Don Y wrote:
Hi Pete,

On 8/18/2015 7:04 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per The Real Bev:
Nobody can multitask, it's just sequential flipping back and forth.
Women may just need to do more flipping than guys do.

I think the distinction is between MultiTasking and TimeSlicing.

People who "multitask" are really time slicing.

Back in The Day, computers used to TimeSlice and the makers called it
multitasking.

Now computers can actually MultiTask because they have multiple CPUs and
programmers can write code that runs parallel threads.

No. Running two or more programs in parallel on multiple cores is
multiprocessing. What you call timeslicing is multitasking. It
is similar, conceptually, to time SHARING but at a much finer grain.

Dunno about people... We have only one brain, but the brain has multiple
areas dedicated to different processing so I would think the jury is
still out.

The brain is not a single processor (to draw a parallel to computers).
You can chew gum, walk, see, hear, etc. simultaneously. The problem
with "multitasking" is that it calls upon higher functions that are
more language oriented -- if you are 'thinking' about something
(solve a problem) you tend to draw on language. This is a largely
"serial" activity -- you can't keep multiple "conversations" going in
your head concurrently.

Think about how hard it is to be engaged in two or more conversations
at a party. OTOH, think about how *easy* it is to be eating hors
d'oeuvres,
sipping a cocktail, talking *and* walking across the room (while
carefully avoiding others along the way) at the same time!

When I was learning ballroom dancing the ladies would always comment
that no matter how hard the man thought it was to lead, we always had it
tougher because we had to do everything going backwards and in heels
plus we had to trust the man knew HOW to lead!

--
Maggie