Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About

created by flyingroc

(thing) by flyingroc (1.2 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 2 C!s Thu Oct 11 2001 at 16:32:33

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About is a book by Donald Knuth where he talks about the relationship between faith and science.

Actually, it's a transcript of 6 public lectures he did in 1999 at MIT, plus the transcript of a session in which Knuth joined a panel discussing creativity, spirituality, and computer science. His first five lectures dealt with his experiences in writing the book 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated which is about chapter 3 verse 16 of every book in the Bible.

The sixth lecture was about God and Computer Science, where Knuth talks about how computer science might help us gain better understanding of spirituality. This book is highly recommended.

When I first heard about Dr. Knuth giving a lecture about God and Computer Science one of the things that came to my mind was: "What, he's going to stand there and talk about himself?" :-). But also, it heartened me that Knuth, the god of Computer Science himself, was also a man of faith.

Dr. Knuth's talks about theology from a computer scientist's perspective. A perspective that Dr, Knuth acknowledges is lacking in the current literature. It was quite refreshing to me to sometimes hear a reflection of the way I think. At the same time, I see a glimpse of the thought process of an extraordinary man, someone I cannot come close to intellectually, but whose simplicity, humour, and faith I can hope to emulate.

The webcasts of Dr. Knuth's lectures can still be found at Dr. Dobb's Journal's technetcast website: http://technetcast.ddj.com/


printable version
chaos

The French chicks FINALLY had a computer problem! Can I get MTV from kissing? elf-hugger Movies where people do 31337 h4x0RiNg on a Macintosh PowerBook
gay geek Life of a computer scientist/engineer Donald Knuth Learn to Program: Philosophies of Coding
How to take photographs of objects Dr. Dobb's Journal Relationships as therapy Double space after a period at the end of a sentence
Geek Love computer security engineer The Royal Tenenbaums Computer Engineering is not the same as Computer Science
CSS hacking Nilla Wafers computer science Reading the Holy Bible
God is a computer programmer Why the Bible rocks Computer Science for Smart People ASP.NET
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Just another sprinkling of indeterminacy
Christmas with the Super-Heroes
How to break a coconut
New Wave
Presidential Line of Succession
Fuck plate tectonics
An Intelligent Woman
Kicking up leaves as we walk along
Over-educated Supervillains
Synesthesia
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
She bruised her knee. This is how we met.
Mount Stromlo Observatory
Everything you just read is bullshit
New Writeups
Heitah
Why I love Everything2(person)
trixingee
Dungeon Mastering for the first time(idea)
Netrat0
It's Called Subtext, Honey(person)
eyeofthebeholder
The Dragon(idea)
Heitah
consist, comprise, constitute, or compose(idea)
Meezzio
Gotlandssnus(thing)
argv
Astral Plane(idea)
Madara
One Winged Angel(fiction)
Tom Rook
Talk is cheap(poetry)
shaogo
Adelle Davis(person)
Aerobe
race car g sfjsgsd(poetry)
Binah
Dream Log: July 5, 2008(dream)
StrawberryFrog
Forgotten things in space(idea)
antigravpussy
velvet revolution fairy tale(idea)
Heitah
Nerve agent VX(thing)
This affordable entertainment brought to you by The Everything Development Company