• Corpus ID: 17991868

Computational Thinking is Pervasive

@inproceedings{Bundy2007ComputationalTI,
  title={Computational Thinking is Pervasive},
  author={Alan Bundy},
  year={2007}
}

• A. Bundy
• Published 2007
• Education

A remarkable intellectual revolution is happening all around us, but few people are remarking on it. Computational thinking is influencing research in nearly all disciplines, both in the sciences and the humanities. Researchers are using computational metaphors to enrich theories as diverse as protoeomics and the mind-body problem. Computing has enabled researchers to ask new kinds of questions and to accept new kinds of answers, for instance, questions that require the processing of huge amounts of data. Of course, we all have computers on our desks nowadays. We all use them for email, web browsing, word processing, game playing, etc. But the computational thinking revolution goes much deeper than that; it is changing the way we think. Computational concepts provide a new language for describing hypotheses and theories. Computers provide an extension to our cognitive faculties. If you want to understand the 21 Century then you must first understand computation. At the University of Edinburgh, we have been exploring these themes in a series of seminars. At each seminar, one or more experts have discussed the influence of computational thinking on their discipline. We have enjoyed a stellar cast of speakers from a wide range of disciplines. Speakers have included the Principal of the University and three Vice Principals. The disciplines have ranged from Physics, Biology and Medicine to Philosophy, Architecture and Education. Often the influences described have been quite subtle. A common story is that the most direct approach does not work for some interesting reason, but that a less direct approach is having a more profound effect.