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Innovation on the Edge?

Posted by Cliff on from the an-edge-so-sharp-it-bleeds dept.

MCassatt asks: "It's a truism in many fields that breakthroughs come from the edge: the scandalous Impressionists become pretty pictures for posters and umbrellas; the world of science fiction becomes the world of science. The wonderful, the fantastic, and the mad of today are tomorrow's mainstream. Are there examples of this in computer science? Not extreme programming, but extreme programs?"

6 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Bricoleur ? by MCassat · · Score: 3, Informative

    Handyman, workman

  2. Computer Space by Vagary · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Computer space" is the object of study of computability theory. Turing Machines, Post Machines, the \lambda-Calculus, the Language of WHILE-programs, function (morphism) composition, etc. These are all theories about the nature of computer space. Since the Church-Turing thesis and complexity theory pretty much cover the fundamental physics of the space, instead we worry about different ways to visualise and apply the space. It's much closer to engineering than physics is style, but you must admit that there's some similarity.

  3. Avalon, Aspect Oriented Programming by hoegg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out the Avalon project. If is a framework encompassing the ideas of Component Oriented Programming and Separation of Concerns.

    Also, read about Aspect oriented Programming, which "modularize[s] crosscutting aspects of a system" by allowing a programmer to specify "aspects" of a class or component such as logging, security, remotability, and more.

  4. Re:Virii by ryants · · Score: 4, Informative
    The plural of virus is neither viri nor virii, nor even vira nor virora. It is quite simply viruses, irrespective of context. Here's why.
    What's the Plural of `Virus'?
    --

    Ryan T. Sammartino
    "Ancora imparo"

  5. Re: Bricoleur ? A definition...This is taken from by HappyPuppy · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is taken from my copy of "They Have a Word For It", by Howard Rheingold:

    bricoleur (French):
    A person who constructs things by random messing around without following an explicit plan. [noun]

    I have often heard it applied to people who use objects or systems in ways the original designers did not anticipate; Levi-Strauss also defines it as someone who plays with objects and technology in order to gain a deeper understanding of them. Or, in short, a hacker (in the original sense).

    --
    On the Internet, nobody knows you're a woof grrr arf arf arf
  6. Re:computer science is weird by transient912 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Nobody comes up with a theory about how "the computer space" works, and then tries to prove it, because everything is pretty much well documented and everything is understood because we created...

    Huh? There are thousands of researchers working dilligently every day to figure out how "computer space" works. Computer science is a very young field, and at present, we are unable to answer even the most basic of questions concerning the nature of computation and its relation to time, space, information, randomness, and the universe.

    You want extreme programs? Look at Nisan's pseudorandom generator, the PCP theorem, Shor's quantum factoring algorithm, etc. These are all efficient programs that changed the way people thought about the world.