A lot of you might understand what this is about: Quite frequently sombebody asks me what my profession was and I say that I work in theoretical computer science at the moment. People might get curious and ask what that is about - and if I am in the mood I might actually try to sum up the beauty of complexity and algorithms, a thing that I myself forget about from time to time. In fact I often asked myself why I didn't stick with mathematics or physics which seem to be so profound. Well, after a while I notice that I baffeld the questioner completely so I might underline it all with some practical examples if I don't give up directly. However, the reaction I get is the same over and over again (I really dislike it): "Oh, sounds interesting, my {cousin, friend, friend of a friend, uncle, brother in law, sister}^1 is in IT, too. {He, She}^1 is {doing webpages, a programmer, a cybernanny, the owner of an Internetcafe} (as well)." SLAP! This is so wrong.
Today I was sent a very nice
article, an interview with Bernard Chazelle, who is describing what computer science's potential is (in his opinion), how the world could look at it and why there should be more people taking up that subject. Maybe he is right and our guild is the next one to turn science with a great revolution. One that is yet to come. Ease for a troubled computer scientist's soul.
