Type: Other
Purpose: The purpose of this short article informs readers that scientific knowledge is behind all the technological advances, research and innovations that are currently being created. Jeannette Wing poses 5 questions that should begin the conversation of the importance of science in computing. The five questions are: (1) P=NO? (2) What is computable? (3) What is intelligence? (4) What is information? (5) (How) can we build complex systems simply?
Findings:
Recommendations: With these deep questions, she ends on a theoretical note by by saying: "Can we build systems with simple and elegant designs that are easy to understand, modify, and evolve yet still provide the functionality we might take for granted today and dream of for tomorrow? Is there a complexity theory for analyzing our real world computing systems as there is for the algorithms we invent? Such a theory would need to consider measures of not just time and space but of energy and cost, as well as dependability, security, and usability, most of which elude quantification today. More ambitiously (or crazily), is there a complexity theory that spans both the theory and practice of computing?" (p. 60).