Monthly Archives: September 2016

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about the stars” – Dijkstra, or maybe not. Something is wrong with the quote. The original quote states telescope, not stars. Astronomy is completely about the stars. as·tron·o·my əˈstränəmē/vnoun “the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole”.
Choosing to keep stars, the meaning changes and implies computer science is completely about computers. This is funny because computers are not stars at all. Computers are built by other people. “Computer Science … computers” and “Star Science … stars”. Now, imagine an astronomer (Star Scientist) studying the stars. Looking out with a telescope, recording the photons. Imagine a computer scientist doing that. They are recording all of the screens. The computers are built by computer engineers. The software responsible for working in concert with the users is built by a software engineer. But the poor Computer Scientist believes to be recording this field of ‘stars’ (Computers).

The thoughts flew so elegantly as before. Yet, the information grew jumbled and nonsensical. As usual choices build up upon one an other, a simple clear thought leading to the orchestration and coordination. As usual first one has the thought worth capturing, next, the immediate decision. “Where?” The answer to which surely depends on a few minor details. One of which is Accessibility, meaning, it is important to the correct result, to know at which layer the idea is to be distilled. Another minor detail, how long should the information exist? Is this thought only worth a whiteboard scribble? Should it be preserved or observation of other, for the first time, with a pencil in a throw away sketch pad?

Anyhow, returning to the important topics at hand, when asked “What is the topic of your thesis?”, reply with this: “Information Capacity”. Or not. Nothing is writ in stone yet. It’s a starting point. There are other things in it as well. Codes, Quotes from Dijkstra, it doesn’t have a title yet, there is a reference list.