
The Identity Crisis in Computer Science - tosh
https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/comer/essay.cs.identity.crisis.html
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There are two theories that can be applied to any discipline to evolve it past
existential problems, edge theory and refinement. These concepts both have
loose associations to psychology and biology. However, you have to view these
as anthropocentric and not abstractly.

The first, edge theory, looks at what you need to survive. If you had 0
resources to do what you do, where would you go? You would be breaking down
the doors of other departments to look for funding, and as a corollary ideas
as well. This isn't just about bridging disciplines, its about breaking down
doors. CS is now spearheading quantum programming, not physics, CS is now at
the forefront of processor architectural security, not chemistry, and so on.
Being a leader not only means taking responsibility for creating problems, but
being able to solve them as well.

The second is refinement. To have refinement you have to have the raw
materials. So what does CS look like in the wild? Simply, you have someone
that tinkers at home, builds their own hardware, infrastructure, creates
programmes, breaks programmes, has an innate understanding of mathematics but
works hard to provide proofs, plays video games. This is the box most CS
programmes set, but what do you not see? How about chemical clocks, or storing
information in DNA, or using fungi as computational solvers, or using
planetary science as a calendar? I guess my point here is that if you want to
advance the breadth of your field, its easier to start with someone, already
at the fringe.

There is a curse on these ideas, so please contact me if you want to use them
elsewhere.

~~~
downerending
> There is a curse on these ideas, so please contact me if you want to use
> them elsewhere.

I've added my own curse, so also contact me if you need a license to use them.
:-)

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lapcatsoftware
Wasn't the creation of the internet achieved via significant government
funding?

Once the funding dries up, it's natural for academics to turn inwards toward
more "intellectual" (i.e, inexpensive) projects.

If new CS projects are pitched via Silicon Valley style marketing, maybe it's
because that's where the funding comes from now.

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ArtDev
Can we just be honest here, CS is not the same as REAL science. It borrows
some basic concepts of science but it so far removed from the rest of the
scientific community it would be better served to not have the word "science"
in its name.

Its seems like it would be better categorized as a type of abstract
mathematics.

