<p>The programmable computer is no more and no less than a handy device for the implementation of any thinkable mechanism. As such it poses on us the burden to demonstrate which mechanisms we can think of sufficiently clearly. It implies the challenge of blending Engineering with the techniques of Scientific Thought; this challenge is exciting and we are ready for it.</p>

The programmable computer is no more and no less than a handy device for the implementation of any thinkable mechanism. As such it poses on us the burden to demonstrate which mechanisms we can think of sufficiently clearly. It implies the challenge of blending Engineering with the techniques of Scientific Thought; this challenge is exciting and we are ready for it.

[EWD-898] The threats to computing science

"It should give us better control over the task of organizing our thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should not deserve the computer at all!" thus concluded E.W. Dijkstra in 1972 at the end of his Turing Award Lecture. Four years earlier, during a conference in 1968, he also coined the phrase "Software Crisis", noting that the main challenge of the software industry, how to achieve intellectual control over the complexities of our own makings, had not yet been met.

We revisit Dijkstra's claims in this podcast. Not your typical functional programming cheerleading babble. The intent is to leave you confoundedly humble, dazed and inspired. Only thereafter... perhaps... we can become to be in control of our own makings!

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"It should give us better control over the task of organizing our thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should not deserve the computer at all!" thus concluded E.W. Dijkstra in 1972 at the end of his Turing Award Lecture. Four years earlier, during a conference in 1968, he also coined the phrase "Software Crisis", noting that the main challenge of the software industry, how to achieve intellectual control over the complexities of our own makings, had not yet been met. We revisit Dijkstra's claims in this podcast. Not your typical functional programming cheerleading babble. The intent is to leave you confoundedly humble, dazed and inspired. Only thereafter... perhaps... we can become to be in control of our own makings!

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[EWD-898] The threats to computing science

[EWD-898] The threats to computing science