Wednesday, March 16, 2011
If you hate computers, they probably hate you back
Some people just don't like the idea of tinkering with code. According to Paul De Palma, those people are women. Paul's argument is that we should arrange the presentation of computer science in a more self-contained, mathematical manner in order to attract more women to the trade. I've worked with people who think computer science is neat and tidy and manageable, and they all share one common flaw: They're wrong. Don't make computer science what it's not. If women as a demographic prefer biology to computer science, let them continue to categorize Siberian worms. They don't really want computer science; don't force it on them.
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At its core, computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. Computers are just a tool - its were we turn our proofs into code. It is software engineering that is messy, and unfortunately most cs majors think they are in a programming major. Computer science really is just applied mathematics. Code is nothing more than a proof that does something on a computer. De Palma is right that computer science should be treated as such, even if her motivation is flawed.
ReplyDeleteTake CS 479 (natural language processing) some time. It's as mathematical and proofy as it gets, but it's still a tinkerer's sport. You try a hundred different approaches and take the one that works best. If that approach doesn't appeal to a certain group of people, they should at least understand what awaits them when they reach the end of what's well-defined in CS (which happens about the third or fourth semester).
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