On the plane last week the passenger sitting next to me, a dentist from Vancouver, was reading a Scientific American article on quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography got its start from people in the theoretical computer science field like Charlie Bennett and Gilles Brassard. For our field to flourish we must produce research of interest to others and to see outsiders reading about the fruits of our labor just for fun is a good sign.
I have always wondered how much the theoretical physics, and more in particular the high energy physics community has gained from popularisation to the outsider. My friend physicists often talk about the Sagan-, the Hawking- and more recently the Brian Greene-generation of young physisicts.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the questions this field tries to answer is more appealing to Joe Sixpack but I am sure there is a lot of opportunity for popularisation of Theoretical Computer Science.
The Fortnow-Generation anyone?
Jurgen
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