Computer science is no longer just a technology--for nearly all of us, it has become a way of life. Whether we spend our days surfing the Internet, or merely use an automatic teller machine on occasion, computers have affected our lives. This collection of sixteen original essays by distinguished computer scientists celebrates the achievements of computer science research, and speculates about the unsolved problems in the field. Various essays address artificial intelligence, parallel programming, global information systems, and a host of other relevant topics. The book shows that long-term research in computer science is crucial and must not be driven solely by commercial considerations. The authors expose the difficult aspects of their topics in clear terms, and illustrate that computer science is now a full-fledged and growing intellectual discipline.
Author(s): Ian Wand, Robin Milner (editors)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 384
COMPUTING TOMORROW......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Contributors......Page 10
1 The Complexity of Algorithms......Page 12
2 Building Novel Software: the Researcher and the Marketplace......Page 32
3 Prospects for Artificial Intelligence......Page 44
4 Structured Parallel Programming: Theory meets Practice......Page 60
5 Computer Science and Mathematics......Page 77
6 Paradigm Merger in Natural Language Processing......Page 99
7 Large Databases and Knowledge Re-use......Page 121
8 The Global-yet-Personal Information System......Page 138
9 Algebra and Models......Page 169
10 Real-time Computing......Page 199
11 Evaluation of Software Dependability......Page 209
12 Engineering Safety-Critical Systems......Page 228
13 Semantic Ideas in Computing......Page 257
14 Computers and Communications......Page 295
15 The Place of Interactive Computing in Tomorrow's Computer Science......Page 306
16 On the Importance of Being the Right Size: the Challenge of Conducting Realistic Experiments......Page 332
References......Page 347
Index......Page 379
