Why study computer science?
The computer is the most versatile and useful tool in modern history. What is computer science? Computer science is the study of how to use this tool effectively.
As technology has advanced, computer science has expanded and diversified. The development of personal computers in the 1980s gave individuals the power and freedom to write and run their own code. The internet gave people the ability to code their own web pages and share them publicly. During this time, many software projects were created and released with free and open source software (FOSS) licences. These open source licenses give the user freedom to use the program as they wish, to study how the program works, and to change and redistribute the program.
Many large open source software projects have developed as a result:
The open source Linux operating system runs on the vast majority (> 90%) of web servers and other cloud services.
The web development ecosystem relies on free and open source HTML, CSS, and JavaScript libraries, frameworks, and engines.
The open source Python and R programming languages are essential for data analysis in all areas of science. In particular, Python is the language of choice for AI research.
The development of these large-scale collaborative projects illustrate the reason why I like to study computer science: it gives one the ability to create something from nothing.
In this age of generative AI, where a large language model (LLM) can generate code in seconds, why is it still important to study computer science?
Studying computer science will help you use the computer more effectively, which now includes the effective use of LLMs.
If you use code from another source, whether it is from a textbook example, your colleague, or an LLM, you need to understand what the code is supposed to do, and you need to validate that it is doing the right thing.