[Air-L] Non-Code-Centric Texts in Introductions To Computer Science?

[Denise N. Rall]

Bernard -

Strangely enough, the following book is a perfect introduction to computers as well as the underlying logic sets that forms the basis to computer science:

Aspray, W., Ed. (1990). 1st edition. Computing before computers. Ames, IA, Iowa State University Press.

There may be a second edition.

As to how today's computers actually work, the old staple by Weizenbaum pretty much says it all (apologies I haven't read the whole thread someone has surely mentioned this already):

Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer power and human reason: From judgment to calculation. San Francisco, CA, W.H. Freeman.

A personal favorite, not quite so old and comprehensive on the different types of computer programming:

Shasha, D. and C. Lazere (1998). Out of their minds: The lives and discoveries of 15 great computer scientists. New York, Copernicus, Springer-Verlag.

Cheers, Denise

	



	
	


Denise N. Rall, PhD. Special Projects, Faculty of Arts & Science  
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW AUSTRALIA Mobile +(61)(0)438 233344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/
Popular Culture Association of Australia & New Zealand
POPCAANZ Conf. Auckland, New Zealand July 2011


--- On Tue, 28/9/10, Bernhard Rieder <lists at procspace.net> wrote:

> From: Bernhard Rieder <lists at procspace.net>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Non-Code-Centric Texts in Introductions To Computer Science?
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Received: Tuesday, 28 September, 2010, 1:18 AM
>  Hi Peter,
> 
> I think that there are actually quite a lot of books out
> there that may capture the interest of CS people without
> being centered on code or engineering practices. I'd suggest
> the following classics:
> 
> "Winograd & Flores: Understanding Computers and
> Cogition"
> "Agre: Computation and Human Experience"
> "Brown & Duguid: The Social Life of Information"
> 
> A good place to lookfor more may be: http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/bds/
> 
> I also think that the historical approach to computing has
> the potential to provide a wider perspective to your
> students.
> 
> "Edwards: The Closed World" is quite fascinating and
> "Campbell-Kelly & Aspray: Computer. A History of the
> Information Machine" is still the best general history of
> computing I've read.
> 
> cheers and good luck for tickling that inner humanist in
> your codesquad...
> B.
> 
> 
> -- Bernhard Rieder
> Laboratoire Paragraphe
> Université de Paris VIII
> 
> bernhard.rieder at univ-paris8.fr
> http://bernhard.rieder.fr
> http://thepoliticsofsystems.net
> 
> On 9/27/10 6:18 , Pete[r] Landwehr wrote:
> > Hey list,
> > 
> > I have an open ended question for this list that is
> intended to be a
> > bit selfish and (hopefully) a bit beneficial for
> everyone else.
> > Recently, I read Weizenbaum's Computing Power And
> Human Reason, in
> > which he makes arguments about the things that AI
> should&  shouldn't
> > address. (It's a bit dated.) In it, he makes a point
> that because he
> > is trained as a computer scientist he considers
> himself a poorly
> > educated entrant to the debate,&  later
> suggests that an introduction
> > to computer science should be more than an
> introduction to
> > programming, but also into some of the theory behind
> the field. (By
> > "theory", I mean the conceptual ideas behind
> computing, not discrete
> > mathematics.) As a computer scientist whose
> introduction to computer
> > science was essentially an introduction to programming
> along with some
> > key algorithms in the field and a few good software
> engineering
> > practices, I found his argument appealing.
> > 
> > As such, I'd like to ask the list -both computer
> scientists and non-
> > what (if any) texts would you like undergraduate
> computer scientists
> > to be exposed to that are _not_ solely focused on good
> practices in
> > C++/Java/<Language of Choice> 
> programming?  Baudrillard's Simulacra
> > And Simulations? Lessig's Code v. 2? Simon's The
> Sciences Of The
> > Artificial? Some linguistics text by Chomsky? Or is
> this whole idea
> > dumb&  everything is totally hunky-dory?
> > 
> > Best,
> > 
> > pml
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> 
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