Things a Computer Scientist rarely talks about

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Things a Computer Scientist rarely talks about

2006-04-07T21:16:00

Well ... don't jump into any naughty conclusions - this is the title of a book by Don Knuth on, hold your breath - religion, God and Computer Science - which I am trying to read!(Thank you, Vineeth).As I have the distinction of having stopped reading books in the TAOCP series after the preface, I thought here comes a book by Knuth which I can read (and maybe even understand a little bit) completely! I am into the second chapter and I start getting that old feeling of `things flying over my head' once again - Kunth will be Knuth! The book has six lectures on stuff like `Randomization and Religion', `Aesthetics', `God and Computer Science' ... skimming over to chapter 6, I found this:

When I talk about computer science as a possible basis for
insights about God, of course I am not thinking about God
as a super-smart intellect surrounded by large clusters of
ultrafast Linux workstations and great search engines....

So, the secret is out, God uses Linux! Each chapter has a Q&A session at the end - one question at the end of lecture 1 was on the rate of growth of Computer Science:

Ah .. if only growth of CS slows down so that I could finally
finish my books! I sort of keep hoping that red herrings will
come along steadily to keep people busy; I get secret
satisfaction when bad ideas take hold and suck a lot of people
in ... like Java (just teasing)!

Knuth has talked for us, yes JAVA SUCKS ;-) Lots more interesting stuff in the Q&A part - read the book to find out yourself!