CHAPTER 1
What is computation?
We need to do away with the myth that computer science is about computers. Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, biology is about microscopes or chemistry is about beakers and test tubes. Science is not about tools, it is about how we use them and what we find out when we do.
Michael R. Fellows and Ian ParberryComputing Research News (1993)
COMPUTERS are the most powerful tools ever invented, but not because of their versatility and speed, per se. Computers are powerful because they empower us to innovate and make unprecedented discoveries.
A computer is a machine that carries out a computation, a sequence of simple steps that transforms some initial information, an ...
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