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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Casting A Wider Net, Lynn Stein
Casting A Wider Net, Lynn Stein
Lynn Andrea Stein
This article is a book review of Mung Chiang's book Networked Life: 20 Questions and Answers. In this text intended for both classroom and online learning, Chiang uses questions about our online lives to explore the technology and computer science behind the Internet, wireless, and Web industries.
(Re)Defining Computing Curricula By (Re)Defining Computing, Charles Isbell, Lynn Stein, Robb Cutler, Jeffrey Forbes, Linda Fraser, John Impagliazzo, Viera Proulx, Steve Russ, Richard Thomas, Yan Xu
(Re)Defining Computing Curricula By (Re)Defining Computing, Charles Isbell, Lynn Stein, Robb Cutler, Jeffrey Forbes, Linda Fraser, John Impagliazzo, Viera Proulx, Steve Russ, Richard Thomas, Yan Xu
Lynn Andrea Stein
What is the core of Computing? This paper defines the discipline of computing as centered around the notion of modeling, especially those models that are automatable and automatically manipulable. We argue that this central idea crucially connects models with languages and machines rather than focusing on and around computational artifacts, and that it admits a very broad set of fields while still distinguishing the discipline from mathematics, engineering and science. The resulting computational curriculum focuses on modeling, scales and limits, simulation, abstraction, and automation as key components of a computationalist mindset.
An Atemporal Frame Problem, Lynn Stein
An Atemporal Frame Problem, Lynn Stein
Lynn Andrea Stein
Given some changes in the world, the frame problem is the problem of determining that most things in the world haven't changed. Since change is generally taken to mean "change over time", the frame problem is generally assumed to be a problem of temporal reasoning, and most examples of the frame problem are couched in terms of the effects of actions. In this paper, I point out the fallacy underlying this approach, and demonstrate something very much like the frame problem that is completely independent of time: the counterfactual validity problem. I show that this "atemporal frame problem" proves damning …
Challenging The Computational Metaphor: Implications For How We Think, Lynn Stein
Challenging The Computational Metaphor: Implications For How We Think, Lynn Stein
Lynn Andrea Stein
This paper explores the role of the traditional computational metaphor in our thinking as computer scientists, its influence on epistemological styles, and its implications for our understanding of cognition. It proposes to replace the conventional metaphor a sequence of steps with the notion of a community of interacting entities, and examines the ramifications of such a shift on these various ways in which we think.