Singly Linked Lists: Or Murmurs from the Subconscious

The intersection of the subconscious and linked lists

Reed Meher

9/29/20233 min read

Linked lists are one way streets. They have a mailbox (or node, as we call it in computer science), on every block. Every node holds a mystery, a hidden power. It might be information, wisdom, a set of actions, or even an empty statement. These nodes are like us, like people.

When the message comes, if you are the final address, you will understand the instructions. You will read the message about your childhood home, remember that it was green like the outside of an avocado, and you'll make guacamole.

Who sent the message? Maybe your subconscious caught something out the corner of your eye that reminded it of your childhood home. Maybe it got an encrypted message from your gut saying that it needed minerals only avocados can provide. Then maybe your unconscious mind fashioned a provocative message to make sure you bought some avocados and ate them that night.

For a singly linked list, each node gets fed the message with a destination address, but, like the message from our subconscious, there is no 'return to sender' on the envelope. Why take the time to send it back? The message should find what it's looking for. When it does, the node will activate and take care of the rest. The message doesn't need to return to sender. Besides, it would take too long to make its way back to all those other mailboxes and be read by all those nodes.

Some people are really like singly linked lists. They don't ever make it back to their childhood homes. They just remember them sometimes, eat avocados, and go on with their day.

This.next = null;

Learn more about linked lists at Free Code Camp.

From the Void

Have you ever been going about your day when suddenly you felt pulled toward an idea, an action, or a word beyond your understanding?

You know, maybe you're driving to the supermarket to go get more eggs. You always get more eggs on Tuesdays around 3pm. You like omelets for dinner on Tuesdays.

Suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, you remember your childhood home. The paint was green, you recall, like the outside of an avocado. Now you are thinking about avocados. At the store, you decide to buy some avocados and make guacamole.

You have no idea why your childhood home overwhelmed your senses that day. Has something like that ever happened to you?

You're Not Alone

It happens to computers, too. We made that for them, so they could be a bit like us. Well, maybe not so they could be like us, but maybe because we can't make things that aren't like us.

For us, it's the unknown physics of the subconscious. For computers, we named the phenomena a singly linked list.

A singly linked list is exactly like the strange working of our subconscious. Well, it is if you imagine yourself to be here, in the moment, with some unknown messenger behind you.

Action Without Understanding

From beyond a veil, you find you've been passed some important information. Along with the information, you received an address to send it to. You don't understand the information. It's beyond your skill to understand it. But you understand the address. You see it: there is a mailbox for you to put the message in. The mailbox is marked with a '2'. It's the only mailbox around. In fact, there is nothing else around but that one mailbox marked with a '2'.

You don't understand anything, but you are compelled to pass on the information. You don't know where the message came from, only that it compelled you to act.

You had a choice: send the message, or don't. If you had more choices than that, well, they were not apparent to you.

You have no idea what will become of the message as you put it in the mailbox marked with a '2'. Once you put the message in the box, it's gone. Poof.

No Looking Back, Jack