
Ask HN: Who's the Carl Sagan of Comp Sci? - zengid
Does our field have a charming figure who popularizes Computer Science the same way that Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Neil deGrasse Tyson popularize physics? If so, who? If not, why?
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mostlyjason
It’s hard to make a media program with wide appeal about computer science
because it’s abstract and behind the scenes. No one wants the Carl Sagan of
plumbing. With physics you can actually show the object being discussed, which
matches better to TV format. It also answers big questions like where the
universe came from and what will happen to it. These are questions people with
any level of intelligence or familiarity of the field are interested in. I
think people are more interested in the applications of computer science, such
as what’s happening on Twitter or Facebook, than the science itself. The hard
part is, how can you relate computer science to something that the general
population cares about?

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yesenadam
_No one wants the Carl Sagan of plumbing._

Haha that sounds awesome actually.

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yesenadam
(Michio who?)

hmm GEB was a charming book which popularized CS, you could say. uh .. The guy
in Mr Robot? ...

Well, I guess if you had to ask, the answer's no. Well, Cosmos (the Sagan one,
haven't seen anything from those other 2) was about a lot more than just
physics. And it was a story of many centuries and countries, about many people
who are household names. CS has a relatively short history, with most of the
developments fairly if not extremely abstract and not easy to explain in a
popular form. _> layers of slightly out-of-focus binary digits flow across the
screen<_ I'm not sure how much of it people _want_ to know. But still, most
things are fascinating when presented well.

I want Julia Evans to be 'it'. :-D

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iamNumber4
Well, there are a few but they’re either to busy writing code or being a to be
a CEO/CTO to be a celebrity spokesperson for the computer science community.

We do have a few already if you want to count Elon Musk, The Woz, and the late
Mr. Jobs

There of course is the likes of Linus torvalds, Dennis Ritchie, John Carmack,
etc... but they really are just busy doing their thing.

Really I think it boils down to comp sci not yet having a media outlet like
the show “cosmos” was for Astro-physics getting the mainstream public’s
attention.

We just need a prime time must see tv show, with a charming host.

The problem is Comp Sci isn’t very exciting for those who aren’t already comp
scientists.

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eitally
I think you have to split the question into two parts, where one is
[literally] computer science and the other is computing technology. There are
scads of options in the second pool, but I think the first is what you're
aiming for. No one sticks out, but that's because the actual science &
engineering behind applied computing technology is ... esoteric. Additionally,
it's hard to find any one thing enough fanatics agree is cool & interesting in
order to drive broad popular opinion.

