Computer Science is a terrible name for this business. First of all, it’s not a science … and it’s not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not really about microscopes and Petri dishes … and geometry is not really about using surveying instruments. … Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don’t really understand it very well, it’s very easy to confuse the essence of what you’re doing with the tools that you use.

Hal Abelson (b. 1947) American mathematician, computer scientist, academic
Lecture, “Introduction to the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs,” MIT (2006)
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Added on 6-Feb-14 | Last updated 6-Feb-14
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