“Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the “impossible,” come true.”
―F. Scott Fitzgerald,The Crack-Up
Please, dear reader, remember these are thoughts for discussions. How, one might ask, is the above quote relevant to the subject of ‘Computer Science’. What do you think? These mental meanderings are just that; open ended thoughts. There are those who consider that any topic whose study includes the label, “science”, isn’t.
When this tool became available in the first half of the twentieth century, programmers were not professional programmers. These were scientists and engineers who had questions to address and this was an additional tool. Perhaps computer programming is to software engineering as soldering is to electrical engineering.
There is little doubt the computer has added a critical tool to contemporary science. And, like all science studies, some results are useful and some are interesting but may not be relevant to current questions. Also, as with other studies, these may be solutions looking for a problem. I am of the opinion that learning how to use computer enhanced skills for problem solving should not be left in the hands of computer scientists.
Applying labels to people and activities is convenient, but often misleading.
“The philosopher F.W.J. Schnelling introduced the distinction between ‘Apollonians,” who favor logic, the analytical approach, and a dispassionate weighing of evidence, and ‘Dionysians’ who lean more toward intuition, synthesis, and passion. These traits are sometimes described as correlating very roughly with emphasis on the use of the left and right brain respectively. But some … seem to belong to another category: the ‘Odysseans,’ who combine the two predilections in their quest for connections among ideas.” – from “The Quark and the Jaguar” by Murray Gell-Mann