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Computer Science doesn’t get the pass, unfortunately. First of all because it’s a branch of maths, so in reality it doesn’t have any instruments to worry about.

Computer Science doesn’t get the pass, unfortunately. First of all because it’s a branch of maths, so in reality it doesn’t have any instruments to worry about. Secondly, applied CS relies on an incredibly simple instrument: binary logic gates. The computers we have today are just a mesh of stuff that flips on and off with no intermediate states. That’s pretty primitive as a means of expression and computation compared with the rest of the universe

Taniwha 4y ago
Oh, let me introduce you to metastability ....
- bpye 4y ago
  Is that computer science or is that physics though?
  - Taniwha 4y ago
    well a bit of both - if someone hasn't given you the scary meta stability lecture you haven't really done computer science :-)
bombolo 4y ago
> The computers we have today are just a mesh of stuff that flips on and off with no intermediate states. Only when things are working properly and there isn't too much cosmic radiation, interference, strange patterns accessing memory, someone turning on a light…
mnw21cam 4y ago
A lot of people think that computer science is just a branch of maths. But when I was doing my doctorate, I was a computer scientist, and my three supervisors were a mathematician, an engineer, and a meteorologist. The difference between us was much more than the stuff we knew - it was the way that we thought, and therefore approached a problem. Supervision meetings were interesting - it very much felt like four people speaking four different languages. On a very broad level (and I'll get loads of people disagreeing with this, because both mathematics and computer science divide further into different specialities), mathematics is primarily about proving logical truths, whereas computer science is about managing complexity. That's a massive cognitive difference, even if many of the problems the two fields tackle are the same.

Taniwha 4y ago

Oh, let me introduce you to metastability ....

bpye 4y ago
Is that computer science or is that physics though?
- Taniwha 4y ago
  well a bit of both - if someone hasn't given you the scary meta stability lecture you haven't really done computer science :-)

bombolo 4y ago

> The computers we have today are just a mesh of stuff that flips on and off with no intermediate states. Only when things are working properly and there isn't too much cosmic radiation, interference, strange patterns accessing memory, someone turning on a light…

mnw21cam 4y ago

A lot of people think that computer science is just a branch of maths. But when I was doing my doctorate, I was a computer scientist, and my three supervisors were a mathematician, an engineer, and a meteorologist. The difference between us was much more than the stuff we knew - it was the way that we thought, and therefore approached a problem. Supervision meetings were interesting - it very much felt like four people speaking four different languages. On a very broad level (and I'll get loads of people disagreeing with this, because both mathematics and computer science divide further into different specialities), mathematics is primarily about proving logical truths, whereas computer science is about managing complexity. That's a massive cognitive difference, even if many of the problems the two fields tackle are the same.