A single tall block of pale sandstone stands alone on dark sand against a deep navy starfield with the Milky Way at the upper right. Incised into its face in large dark capitals, on two lines, "THE TOP" above "STEP." A small plaque set into the stone at the foot of the block reads "ERIC GARCIA." Nothing stands above or beside the block.
A broad, low slab of pale sandstone lies flat on dark sand against a deep navy starfield with the Milky Way at the upper right. Incised into its top face in dark capitals, a large Roman numeral "I." above the words "IN THE BEGINNING." Nothing else is in the frame.
A slab of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved with a four-column table headed "SMALL (8-BIT) INTEGER BIT REPRESENTATIONS FOR BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS." The leftmost column is headed "VALUE" and the other four are "TWOS-COMPLEMENT", "SIGN-MAGNITUDE", "ONES-COMPLEMENT" and "EXCESS-128." Rows run down from 127, 126, 125, an ellipsis, 3, 2, 1, 0, then 0 again and down the negative side to 125, 126, 127, 128, each row giving the same value written as eight ones and zeros four different ways. Several cells read "no rep." instead of a number, where that scheme cannot write that value.
A slab of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved with a dense circuit schematic. Across the top, boxes labeled "INPUT DATA B" over bit labels "B7 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 B0" and "INPUT DATA A" over "A7 A6 A5 A4 A3 A2 A1 A0", with "STATUS FLAGS" and a legend reading "V = Overflow has occurred, N = Negative Result, Z = Zero Result, C = Carry Out." Dozens of engraved wires run down into boxes labeled "MUX 1", "MUX 2", "MUX 3", "ALU", "SHIFT", "GATE/LOGIC" and "ROTATE MODE SELECT", and out to a box labeled "RESULT (2’S COMPLEMENT NOTATION)" over bit labels "Q7 Q6 Q5 Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q0." Along the bottom a table headed "CONTROL WORDS" lists "ADD + CARRY (A+B+Cin)", "SUBTRACT (A-B)", "NEGATE (2’s Comp)", "INCREMENT (A+1)", "DECREMENT (A-1)", "SHIFT LEFT (with carry)", "ROTATE LEFT (with carry)" and "ROTATE RIGHT", each against an eight-digit binary code, beside three numbered instructions: "1. Load binary input data as required. 2. Set up Control Word. 3. Click CK button for result."
A slab of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved with a diagram headed "Simplified model of x86 CPU." On the left, under "Instruction stream", a column of assembly instructions in monospace, beginning and ending with an ellipsis: "movl $0, %eax", "addl %eax, %ebx", "popl %eax", a label "looptop:", then an arrow pointing at "imul %edx", then "andl $0xFF, %eax", "cmpl $100, %eax", "jb looptop", "leal 4(%esp), %ebp", "movl %esi, %edi", "subl $8, %edi", "shrl %cl, %ebx" and "movw %bx, -2(%ebp)." On the right, under "General-purpose registers", eight stacked boxes labeled "eax", "ecx", "edx", "ebx", "esp", "ebp", "esi" and "edi", with a double-headed arrow beneath them marked "32 bits."
A slab of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved with a panel headed "Plotting a Cosine Wave in Python." On the left, nine lines of Python in monospace, with comments: "# Import Python libraries", "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt", "import numpy as np"; "# x-axis: Creates an array of 100 evenly spaced values between 0 and 10", "x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)"; "# y-axis: Calculates the cosine of each x value", "y = np.cos(x)"; "# Plot the (x,y) values on a graph", "plt.plot(x, y)"; "# Add in graph title and labels", "plt.title(‘Cosine Wave’)", "plt.xlabel(‘x-axis’)", "plt.ylabel(‘y-axis’)", "plt.show()". On the right, the graph those lines produce: a cosine curve titled "Cosine Wave", starting at 1.0, falling to a trough near 3, rising to a peak near 6 and falling again near 9, with "x-axis" below and "y-axis" beside it.
A stepped pyramid of pale sandstone blocks against the deep navy starfield, each step carved with a label, read from the bottom up: "HARDWARE", "MACHINE LANGUAGE", "ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE", "HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE", then a row of three smaller blocks side by side reading "Java", "C++" and "Fortran", then a row of two blocks reading "OPEN SOURCE LIBRARIES" and "PYTHON", and at the top two separate small blocks side by side reading "WHAT DOES THIS DO?" and "HOW WILL I KNOW IF IT DID?"
A stepped pyramid of pale sandstone blocks against the deep navy starfield, carved and read from the bottom up: "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES", "SENTENCES", "BORROWING", and on top two smaller blocks side by side reading "WHAT SHOULD THIS DO?" and "HOW WILL I KNOW IT DID?" A small pale robot with a boxy vintage monitor head and two glowing rectangular eyes stands on the top step, one thin arm raised, holding a white hand-lettered sign that reads "I FILLED IN THE REST."
The same broad, low slab of pale sandstone on dark sand against the deep navy starfield. Incised into its top face, a large Roman numeral "II." above the words "THE STAIRCASE." Nothing else is in the frame.
A single block of warm sandstone stands alone on dark ground against a deep navy starfield, with a band of the Milky Way at the upper right. The front face of the block carries a label incised in bold dark capitals: "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES." Nothing stands above or beside the block, and most of the frame is empty sky. No other text appears in the image.
A tall upright standing stone of pale sandstone is planted in dark sand against a deep navy starfield, with the four-step staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "THE JOB" above a thin rule, and beneath the rule, larger, "THAT JOB IS GONE, AND NOBODY MISSES IT."
Two blocks of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, the smaller set on top of the larger and stepped back to the right. The lower block is carved in dark sans-serif capitals "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES" and the upper one "SENTENCES." A small pale robot with a boxy vintage monitor head and two glowing rectangular eyes stands on the lower block, one thin arm raised, holding a hand-lettered sign that reads "I DO THIS PART NOW." Nothing stands above the upper block.
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN." and, after a gap, "AND AGAIN."
Three blocks of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, each set on the one below and stepped back to the right. The labels are carved in dark sans-serif capitals, read from the bottom up: "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES", "SENTENCES", "BORROWING." The small pale robot with the boxy vintage monitor head and glowing rectangular eyes stands on the middle block, one thin arm raised, holding a hand-lettered sign that reads "AND THIS PART." Nothing stands above the top block.
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "BUT THERE ISN’T." and, after a gap, "THE STAIRCASE HAS A TOP."
The same broad, low slab of pale sandstone on dark sand against the deep navy starfield. Incised into its top face, a large Roman numeral "III." above the words "TWO QUESTIONS." Nothing else is in the frame.
A stepped pyramid of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved in dark sans-serif capitals and read from the bottom up: "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES", "SENTENCES", "BORROWING", and on top two smaller blocks side by side reading "WHAT SHOULD THIS DO?" and "HOW WILL I KNOW IT DID?" The small pale robot with the boxy vintage monitor head and glowing rectangular eyes stands on the "BORROWING" step, below the two questions, one thin arm raised, holding a hand-lettered sign that reads "I CANNOT MAKE THAT SHORTER."
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "THE TOP STEP IS TWO QUESTIONS, AND NOTHING IS ABOVE IT."
The same broad, low slab of pale sandstone on dark sand against the deep navy starfield. Incised into its top face, a large Roman numeral "IV." above the words "THE MACHINE THAT SAYS NO." Nothing else is in the frame.
A close view of the small pale robot's boxy vintage monitor head, its two glowing rectangular eyes bright on the dark screen, against the deep navy starfield with one edge of a warm sandstone block below. One thin arm holds a white hand-lettered sign, large in the frame, that reads "LINE 4. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND." No other text appears in the image.
The identical close view of the same small pale robot's monitor head and glowing rectangular eyes against the deep navy starfield, with the same edge of warm sandstone below and the same thin arm holding a white hand-lettered sign in the same place in the frame. The sign now reads "I FILLED IN THE REST." No other text appears in the image.
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "NOTHING PRINTS A LINE." then "NOTHING WAITS." then "THE DECISION STILL GOT MADE."
The same broad, low slab of pale sandstone on dark sand against the deep navy starfield. Incised into its top face, a large Roman numeral "V." above the words "IT REALLY IS A STEP UP." Nothing else is in the frame.
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "THE STEP UP" above a thin rule, and beneath the rule "THE STEP UP IS REAL — WITH THE PART THAT SAYS “NO” TAKEN OUT."
A stepped pyramid of pale sandstone against the deep navy starfield, carved in dark capitals and read from the bottom up: "WHERE THE NUMBER GOES", "SENTENCES", "BORROWING", and on top two smaller blocks side by side reading "WHAT SHOULD THIS DO?" and "HOW WILL I KNOW IT DID?" The small pale robot with the boxy vintage monitor head and glowing rectangular eyes stands on the top step between the two question blocks, one thin arm raised, holding a hand-lettered sign that reads "I FILLED IN THE REST." Planted upright in the stone to the right of the robot, held by nobody and standing lower than the robot’s sign, a second hand-lettered sign reads "WHICH PARTS?"
The same tall standing stone of pale sandstone planted in dark sand against the deep navy starfield, the staircase small and far behind it. Incised into its face in dark capitals: "NOBODY WRITES ASSEMBLY ANYMORE." and, after a gap, "SOMEBODY STILL HAS TO SAY WHAT THEY WANT."