On Jan 8, 2010, at 2:46 PM, erik quanstrom <quans...@coraid.com> wrote:
it's unfortunate that computer history isn't a bigger
component of a computer science degree.
History and Philosophy of Science was slow in becoming a legitimate
academic pursuit of great practical value. It will probably not be
quite as long before the analogous subject will materialise for
electronic computing. It is an answered question how much influence
financial interests will have on it.
the history and philosophy of $subject would be a broader, and
less applicable topic than what i'm getting at. in dict(1), /history/
1.1 or 2 is what i'm talking about.
no (serious) physicist since newton or since maxwell has ignored their
work. no mathematician since newton or hilbert has ignored their
work. computer science seems exceptional to me in this regard;
we have learned many things that don't work, but seldom seem to
recall the lessons learned.
History should be a part of everything. Alas this isn't the case. I
tend to read up on everything, past and present, before starting a
project, people think it's stupid. I'm more successful, but it's still
stupid...
- erik
