(identity 'myron)

Thu, 21 Apr 2005

These are strange days on planet Earth [/World]

Caught the first part of a really good PBS documentary last night, Strange Days on Planet Earth hosted by Ed Norton. The documentary covers different aspects of environmental change that are unprecedented in Earth history, as far as we know. Combined, these changes have potentially cataclysmic effects that we barely even begin to understand.

The best example from the show is the chain of events that causes a major hike in the number of asthmatics and coral disease in Trinidad. Seemingly unrelated, different researchers trace the cause back to a common source, African dust. While dust traveling over the Atlantic is normally a natural phenomenon, it's now being intensified by global warming. The chain is then global warming -> intensified weather patterns -> increase in African dust settling in the Americas -> increase in dust and certain harmful particles in the air -> higher rates of asthma and dying coral reefs in the Carribeans.

It really reminds you of how complex and interconnected the world is. When a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world.... I can't help but feel cynical here though, because people rarely think on a global perspective, much less one that's global and looking at cause and effect spanning years, if not decades or centuries. Combine this with consumerism and corporations that only care about the bottom line and it's like we're locked in to a lifestyle that will nver respond quickly enough to fix what we've done. The darker side of me also thinks maybe we deserve whatever happens for our greed, arrogance and techological hubris.

// posted at 10:20. permalink   comments

Is CS a science? [/programming]

Yet another interesting item from ACM news, Is Computer Science Science? (warning: pdf). Unlike a lot of other discussions out there on the same topic, this one argues yes.

What is your profession?

Computer Science.

Oh? Is that a science?

Sure, it is the science of information processes and their interactions with the world.

Oddly enough he later admits that it's also a blend of science, engineering and mathematics. However, to him, the lines are blurry enough that really, it still follows the scientific ways of making successful hypotheses to explain and predict phenomena in the world:

The scientific paradigm, which dates back to Francis Bacon, is the process of forming hypotheses and testing them through experiments; successful hypotheses become models that explain and predict phenomena in the world. Computing science follows this paradigm in studying information processes. The European synonym for computer science—informatics—more clearly suggests the field about information processes, not computers.

I'm not entirely convinced, but it's an interesting read anyway, if not for the article then for the quotes or the mention of our loss of credibility due to hype at the end. The latter being really interesting, since if computer science really is a science, then we've failed miserably at providing quantitative measures for claims like productivity gains of programming languages and paradigms. Anyway, if you've ever wondered why it's BSc's we have and not other degrees, here's the answer.

// posted at 09:34. permalink   comments