Each month we pose questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our August featured reviewer, Scott Moody.
Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?
A) I'm impressed with the scale of application distribution networks (app stores) and the breadth and power of devices (phones, tablets, TV, watches, the Internet of Things (IoT), and so on). With advanced code editing environments (like XCode and Flutter) and optimizing compilers, programming to these device framework libraries has become more significant and more language agnostic. The same compiled application bits are distributed to millions of devices hourly (try that exactness following a published cookbook algorithm). Gutenberg would be impressed!
Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?
A) I've always enjoyed photography, especially of my own activities like mountain climbing and ocean sports. But my mind has always thought there must be a simpler approach to problems (like finding or displaying photos), and with computer science (CS) the potential for building “an app for that” is unlimited.
Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?
A) CS must find new approaches to manage nondeterministic unbounded complexities. We've hit a metaphorical iceberg and inverted the original intent of the "Internet," as there are now vastly more “mobile, wireless, sensor devices” than “well-known" services [1]. Newer automatic programming approaches are needed that can leverage bigger chunks of reusable capability, expanding approaches like CocoaPods, GitHub, and app stores. More nimble, reusable, and executable software architecture approaches are needed. Just like a photo being worth a 1000 words, I believe the rapid advances in computer vision will outpace speech recognition approaches, especially for those that can't pass the CAPTCHA not-a-robot tests.
Much like Peter Denning's "Great principles of computing" [2], I've been focused on cataloging these architecture challenges and trying to disseminate them to students and others while overcoming what seems to be our collective "18 second attention span" ("18 seconds" is from one of Scott Adams' podcasts, but I've included a reference where he talks about reduced attention spans [3]). I've been exploring various distributed collaboration approaches across a wide breadth of devices, agents, networks, and users. The IoT genre provides a foundation for easily testing new devices and providing immediate user feedback (or at least in 18 seconds). I can even feed my dogs remotely from my wristwatch, just like Dick Tracy. CS enabled me to envision and build “an app for that.”
Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?
A) I’ve always liked Lady Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of the poet Lord Byron. She lived during the “Victorian Internet” era and worked with Charles Babbage to understand and disseminate his "computer" ideas, even sending detailed messages back and forth five times a day by runner (basically early email). Thus she is potentially the first (female) computer scientist, in 1843, programming in a non-existing language for a non-existing computer and discovering important CS formalisms. I've always liked this quote from Lady Ada on concurrency:
"There are frequently several distinct sets of effects going on simultaneously; all in a manner independent of each other and yet to a greater of less degree exercising a mutual influence.” [4]
I'm glad the Ada Language is named after her, codifying her concurrency in the Ada tasking and rendezvous model.
Q) What is your favorite type of music?
A) I listen to music constantly and really like rock and roll, especially electric guitars and long jams; Van Morrison, Wagner, and other music works, too. But CS sneaks in again, as the frequency from a microwave oven (while heating my coffee) interferes with the IoT Bluetooth speakers and has me wishing to “put the cable back.” There must be “an app for that.”
REFERENCES
[1] NSF Wireless Mobile Planning Group (WMPG) Workshop. “New architectures and disruptive technologies for the future Internet: the wireless, mobile and sensor network perspective.” Aug. 2-3, 2005, http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/WMPG/Documents/WMPG_draft_report_v3_604.pdf.
[2] Denning, P. “The great principles of computing.” April 2008, https://denninginstitute.com/pjd/PUBS/ENC/gp08.pdf.
[3] Adams, S. “Things I can’t do.” April 17, 2014, https://www.scottadamssays.com/2014/04/17/things-i-cant-do/.
[4] Toole, B. A. (Ed.). Ada, the enchantress of numbers. Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, CA, 1992.
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