My views on CS

What others have said before

Computer science is not really about computers — and it’s not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes…and geometry isn’t really about using surveying instruments. Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don’t really understand it very well, it’s very easy to confuse the essence of what you’re doing with the tools that you use.”

1

I’m writing this article to consolidate my ideas and views about this amazing field of computer science which I happen to work on. The main purpose of this essay is 2 fold -

  1. A jargon free intro to what computer science is all about
  2. How the field started
  3. What were the initial motivations
  4. Where is field is heading
  5. Explain various subfields (Systems [compilers, networks, OS, CA] vs Theory [Formal methods, complexity theory, Algorithms] vs AI)
  6. Common misconceptions and myths
  7. The inherent multidiciplinary aspect of it.
  8. Why it would become a very integral part of the future.
  9. Explain a few algorithmic problems which people from different walks of life can easily relate to
  10. Try to explain what my interests in CS are
  11. Theoretical CS
  12. Algorithms and Complexity theory
  13. Approximation Alg, Parameterized Algorithms, Combinatorial Optimization

As always views are subject to change and hence some of my opinions presented here might also change --- wtf does this even mean !