The Trek

Abstract

As a professor of computer science, I find myself so close to computers so much of the time, so intimately involved in hardware design, programs, and algorithms, that I rarely step back from these magnificent machines and whistle in amazement or reverently mutter the scientific equivalent of “gee whiz.” This is a common failing of many scientists, an inability or unwillingness to look at their subject with fresh eyes as a lay person or, better yet, as a child.