''Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About'' (2001) is a book by

Donald E. Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

, published by CSLI Publications of Stanford, California. The book contains the annotated transcripts of six public lectures given by

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

on the subject of relations between

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

(particularly

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

). Knuth gives credence to the concept of divinity.

Anne Foerst wrote a

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the ...

for the book. The six chapters are lightly edited transcriptions of Knuth's lectures: * Lecture 1: Introduction * Lecture 2: Randomization and Religion * Lecture 3: Language Translation * Lecture 4: Aesthetics * Lecture 5: Glimpses of God * Lecture 6: God and Computer Science Knuth added a final section entitled "Panel: Creativity, Spirituality, and Computer Science".

Excerpts from reviews

One mark of a good author is the ability to make a successful book out of an unpromising subject. Over the years, Donald E. Knuth has produced a slew of bestsellers on topics that might seem to have only limited appeal, most notably the arts of computer programming and mathematical typography. His latest book takes on a subject so challenging it has to hide behind a coy title: ''Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About'' (CSLI Publications, $35). What is this subject that dare not speak its name? Not sex, but religion. The book is based on a series of lectures on "interactions between faith and computer science." The main topic is Knuth's approach to Bible study through random sampling (which led to an earlier book as well, titled ''3:16''); there is also musing on the programmer's role as god of a created universe. It's a very unpromising subject, but Knuth is a very good author.

If you are a fan of ''3:16'' and want to know more about the statistical techniques Knuth employed, his aesthetic considerations, how he translated the 59 verses without knowing Hebrew or Greek, or what he learned in the process of this project—or if you simply want merely to spend time with a remarkable, playful intellect—you'll enjoy this book. If you want to know how computer science might help theological reflection, lecture six can launch you on your way to further, challenging study.

Despite many enjoyable passages, the book ultimately disappoints. While I can imagine that the lectures might have been wonderful to listen to, their verbatim transcription to the printed page does not always work well. A large fraction of the lectures centered around Knuth's study of selected verses from the Bible, but the written version comes across as repetitious, with many uninteresting details. Knuth's analysis of the verses is not deep and not particularly informed by a scientific sensibility. And too many of the questions in the question-and-answer sessions were superficial and could have been edited. Saul A. Teukolsky (
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
)
Physics Today ''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. I ...
, April 2002, p. 81–82

Notes

(hardcover), (paperback)

External links

Video of Donald Knuth's talk at Google, March 16, 2009 - On interactions between faith and science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Things A Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About 2001 books American non-fiction books Books by Donald Knuth Books about religion and science

Contents

Excerpts from reviews

Further reading

Notes

External links