2025.03.07 09:00
what is computer science
Sometimes I wonder, if someone asked me what computer science is, since it's not the art of operating a computer and making the printer work again, what could one answer. I think it could be shown with two examples.
First example: imagine that in pre-computer times you have a Polish language dictionary - a complete alphabetically sorted list of Polish words. And now you want to find all anagrams that exist in the Polish language. How to do this with minimal effort? Well - one could tell the person asking - someone familiar with computer science would quickly devise a clever method, smarter than comparing each word with every other word. And not because (not necessarily because) they were taught how to find anagrams in college, but because they've seen many similar problems, so they'll quickly come up with an idea.
Or a second example: let's say there's a secret treasure hidden either in Warsaw or in Krakow. A certain man knows this secret: he knows in which of these two cities the treasure is hidden. And he wants to tell this to his two sons. But he wants to tell them in such a way that he only tells each of them part of the secret, and they can find out in which city the treasure is if they combine their parts of the secret. But individually, neither can make any use of his part of the secret. And you can consider variations: what if there are more cities, or more sons, or... And again: if someone is unfamiliar with computer science, it's difficult for them to figure this out, but if they are familiar, it's easy.
Oh, that's how one could explain it, if anyone asked. But no one ever asks me about it, because some already know without me, and others aren't interested.
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