COMP 2903 A2- On the Nature of Computing Danny Silver JSOCS, Acadia University

Jon Crowcroft Communications of the ACM, Feb, 2005 Marconi Professor of Communications Systems in the Computer Lab, at the University of Cambridge Fellow of the ACM, British Computer Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, and IEEE Research Interests - Communications and multimedia systems, especially Internet related

Proposition Computing creates a third place in human intellectual culture – the virtual Not the real – Based on nature – Natural science Not the artificial – Based on mathematics and logic – Complete, consistent, correct An aside Godel’s theoremGodel’s theorem

Position Computer Science Engineering H/w systems, Networks, S/w systems Computer Science Computability, complexity, information theory Mathematics and Science

Where do Computer Systems Exist? As virtual systems they may not exist in nature – They may defy natural laws – The Cartoon Laws of Physics The Cartoon Laws of Physics As virtual systems they may never come into existence through human creation – They may defy mathematical principles Do you agree with Nobel Prize physicist Richard Feynman ??

So what do Computer Scientists do? Not always useful or attractive to engineering or business Does not always advance pure knowledge for science However CS now plays an important role in engineering, business, science and most areas of human endeavour. – Do you agree?

Examples of The Virtual Virtualization Virtual Communities Entertainment What else?

Virtualization Storage – virtual memory, network drives Processing – virtual machine, concurrency, parallel processing Communications – virtual private network, packet switching APIs – one size fits all In silico versus – in vivo (in the living) or in vitro (in a test tube)

Virtual Communities lists MySpace FaceBook Canadian Tire Corp NewMothers.com 2 nd Life Yabber Twitter

Entertainment CS Interactive Media Secondlife.com Movies, TV Youtube.com Computer Games