Peter, Could add Norbert Weiner's Cybernetics to the list. Or the more digestible version: The Human use of Human Beings. Great question all around! -r Robert MacDougall Associate Professor Communication/Media Studies Curry College 1071 Blue Hill Avenue Milton, MA 02186-2395 USA Office Ph: 617-333-2265 Wired media fiddle with the folk world - expose your kids to many modes. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Pete[r] Landwehr Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 12:19 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] Non-Code-Centric Texts in Introductions To Computer Science? Hey list, I have an open ended question for this list that is intended to be a bit selfish and (hopefully) a bit beneficial for everyone else. Recently, I read Weizenbaum's Computing Power And Human Reason, in which he makes arguments about the things that AI should & shouldn't address. (It's a bit dated.) In it, he makes a point that because he is trained as a computer scientist he considers himself a poorly educated entrant to the debate, & later suggests that an introduction to computer science should be more than an introduction to programming, but also into some of the theory behind the field. (By "theory", I mean the conceptual ideas behind computing, not discrete mathematics.) As a computer scientist whose introduction to computer science was essentially an introduction to programming along with some key algorithms in the field and a few good software engineering practices, I found his argument appealing. As such, I'd like to ask the list -both computer scientists and non- what (if any) texts would you like undergraduate computer scientists to be exposed to that are _not_ solely focused on good practices in C++/Java/<Language of Choice> programming? Baudrillard's Simulacra And Simulations? Lessig's Code v. 2? Simon's The Sciences Of The Artificial? Some linguistics text by Chomsky? Or is this whole idea dumb & everything is totally hunky-dory? Best, pml _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/