Things_a_Computer_Scientist_Rarely_Talks_About.pdf

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About Donald E. Knuth ISBN: 1-57586-327-8 Copyright notice: Excerpted from Things a Comp uter Scientist Rarely Talks A bout by Donald E. Knuth, published by CSLI Publications. ©2001 by CSLI Publications. All rights reserved.This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair- use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that CSLI Publications is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of CSLI Publications. LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION (6 OCTOBER 1999) It’s certainly overwhelming for me to see so many people here. Why did you come to this talk, when you could have gone over to hear Jesse Ventura instead? The lectures that I’ll be giving during the next few weeks are entitled “Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About,” and the subtitle is “Interactions Between Faith and Com- puter Science.” I’m here because computer science is wonderful, but it isn’t everything. So today I want to go beyond technical stuff to consider other things that I value. In this series I’m going to be giving six talks that are more or less independent of each other. Anne Foerst asked me to deliver between five and ten lectures, and I settled on six because I could only think of six jokes. (And that was the first.) I have to tell jokes once in awhile to see if you can really hear me. The first reaction that I had when I was invited to give these lectures was to say, “No way, this is impossible. The whole sub- ject of faith and science is much too deep for me.” I’ve given lots of talks at universi