tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post6786353951111715937..comments2024-03-27T19:58:17.387-05:00Comments on Computational Complexity: The InternshipLance Fortnowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06752030912874378610noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-90205002932127116082013-06-17T07:38:35.675-05:002013-06-17T07:38:35.675-05:00Watching The Internship inspired a STEM-centric es...Watching <i>The Internship</i> inspired a STEM-centric essay that I have posted on Dick Lipton and Ken Regan's <i>Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP</i> as the comment "<b><a href="https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/happy-fathers-day/#comment-37903" rel="nofollow">Ah Google! Ah Humanity! Are we Bartlebies or are we ”Fronk-en-steens”? </a></b>".<br /><br /><b>Caveat</b> The essay is written for a tough-minded audience that includes writers, historians, warriors … <i>and</i> computer-science professionals.John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-83580029369691281232013-06-17T06:58:46.464-05:002013-06-17T06:58:46.464-05:00Your marketing problem is that "computer scie...Your marketing problem is that "computer scientists are mainly portrayed as programmers in the film(?)"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-22024621800010072802013-06-15T12:06:31.363-05:002013-06-15T12:06:31.363-05:00As a followup, the essayist David Frum recently po...As a followup, the essayist David Frum recently posted on <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/26/david-s-bookclub-bartleby-the-scrivener.html" rel="nofollow">David's Bookclub: <i>Bartleby the Scrivener</i></a></b> (Nov 26, 2012) an accounting of the reasons why we in the 21st Century can aptly echo Melville in exclaiming "<i>Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity</i>"!<br /><br />A great hope-and-promise of the 21st Century's STEM enterprises is ("of course!") that they will enable us to <i>smile</i> while we exclaim "<i>Ah Google! Ah humanity</i>"! <br /><br />The STEM-founded promise of that smiling hope is why I have asked *my* daughter to take me (on Father's Day) to see <i>The Internship</i>! :)John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-26937011634596423352013-06-15T09:39:49.062-05:002013-06-15T09:39:49.062-05:00To GASARCH's thoughtful remarks, please let me...To GASARCH's thoughtful remarks, please let me add that Herman Melville's tragic short story <i><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby,_the_Scrivener" rel="nofollow">Bartleby, the Scrivener</a></b></i> (1853) is an extended meditation upon human and social themes that considerably overlap those of <i>The Internship</i>.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b> History and art alike show us that these issues are ancient and difficult.<br /><br /><b>Question</b> Can the 21st Century's <i>The Internship</i> be viewed as a comedic expression of the same tragic themes as the 19th Century's <i>Bartleby</i>?John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-24496471316579917862013-06-15T09:22:51.975-05:002013-06-15T09:22:51.975-05:00Whenever a new technology threatens jobs in an exi...Whenever a new technology threatens jobs in an existing one<br />(EXAMPLES: People who copied documents by hand before the printing press, MOOCS may be an example now, Computers for lots of stuff)<br />the question to ask is what to do during the TRANSITION.<br /><br />YES- things will be better in the LONG term (I would have said<br />`of course things will be better in the LONG term' but I've heard<br />that `of course' is considered harmful) however what do you do<br />about the people who (say) were REALLY GOOD at copying documents and are now out-of-a-job. I, of course, do not pretend to know<br />the answers (Government provides job training? Companies who<br />fire them to? Extend Unemployment benefits? Student loans/grants<br />for older students? Other stuff I haven't thought of? Cost-benefit<br />tradeoffs?) But at least I think thats one of the important questions.GASARCHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06134382469361359081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-51447259297940291772013-06-15T08:42:21.949-05:002013-06-15T08:42:21.949-05:00Lance affirms [with emphasis & examples added]...<b>Lance</b> affirms [with emphasis & examples added] <br /><br />------------------------<br /><b><i>Of course</i></b> I remain very bullish on computer science [quantum computing, genomics, connectomics, regenerative medicine, <i>etc.</i>] and the great things we can achieve with computing [algorithms both quantum and classical, hardware both quantum and classical, fast gene sequencing, whole-brain databases, stem cell therapies, <i>etc.</i>].<br />------------------------<br /><br />Perhaps it is prudent practice not to begin affirmations in this class with the prefacing phrase "of course", for the common-sense <i>none</i> of these affirmations are in any sense obvious or trivial … indeed, are there not plenty of substantial emerging reasons to conceive that these affirmations may not even be <i>true</i>?<br /><br />In this regard, please allow me to commend this week's essay by Charlie Jane Anders titled <b><i><a href="http://io9.com/are-paul-krugmans-1996-predictions-about-2096-already-513183254" rel="nofollow">Are Paul Krugman's 1996 predictions about 2096 already coming true?</a></i></b><br /><br />------------------------<br />"When something becomes abundant, it also becomes cheap. A world awash in information is one in which information has very little market value. In general, when the economy becomes extremely good at doing something, that activity becomes less, rather than more, important. Late-20th-century America was supremely efficient at growing food; that was why it had hardly any farmers. Late-21st-century America is supremely efficient at processing routine information; that is why traditional white-collar workers have virtually disappeared." […]<br /><br />"With vast improvements in information technology, employers may now seek a small number of specialized, technically trained experts rather than a large number of versatile, diversified liberal arts graduates.… If the bears are right, we may be moving toward a stage of capitalism less dependent on a growing supply of home-grown human capital. In that case, many of those bullish on higher education investments in the United States could end up as red meat."<br />-----------------------<br /><br />These sobering considerations encompass computer science "of course" … along with every other STEM discipline too!<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b> Lance's bullish views regarding computer science (and other STEM disciplines) would be substantially more thought-provoking if the needlessly weakening (and even outright misleading!) prefacing phrase "of course" were omitted. <br /><br /><b>Suggestion</b> Dijkstra, Edsger's curmudgeonly yet justly celebrated computer science essay <i>" 'GOTO' Considered Harmful"</i> could serve as a template for a follow-up <i>Computational Complexity</i> essay titled <i>" 'Of Course' Considered Harmful"</i>.<br /><br />Such an essay might help to accelerate the necessary and urgent process of evolving optimistic affirmations of professional faith and institutional loyalty — which today's students appreciate as vacuous <i>prima facie</i> — into reasoned considerations of the pressing issues of our 21st century.John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.com