Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks about: Volume 136

`Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About' by the distinguished computer scientist, Donald E. Knuth, professor emeritus at Stanford, is a collection of six lectures given at MIT as a part of the "God and Computers" project started in 1997 by Anne Foerst, a faculty member at the MIT Artificial Intelligence lab. For those who are not familiar with Donald Knuth's name, I can approximate his renown within his speciality as being comparable in stature to Bob Dylan in contemporary folk music or Julia Child in the world of American culinary writing. His professional accomplishments include the foremost texts on the analysis of computer algorithms and a groundbreaking creation of software for computerized typesetting. He is also a lifelong devout Lutheran who has written a prominent synthesis of biblical texts and calligraphy, entitled `3:16'. Much of this book takes us behind the scenes of how this book came to be. I will quickly warn you that as insightful as Knuth's lectures are, the introduction by Anne Foerst and the symposium at the end are not of comparable quality. This volume is a great affirmation of how a person can not only embrace scientific and logical disciplines and still be a devout Christian. I am really happy to find Knuth especially beginning his fourth lecture with a reference to that great forgotten American philosopher, Charles Saunders Peirce (the inventor of Pragmatism) and how Peirce divided `normative sciences' into the rational, the ethical, and the aesthetic. Not only does this show that matters of religion, closely allied with the aesthetic, are really a different world of discourse than either logic or questions of right and wrong. (The distinction between morality and religion is an important matter, but not an issue in this book.) The main thrust of this distinction explains why scientific or mathematical discourse is actually not directly relevant to matters of faith, just as matters of faith are not directly relevant to issues of scientific truth and its theories. Logic and Science have locked horns with faith for centuries with all sorts of mistaken concepts such as the proofs of the existence of God done by the Scholastics and the Great Clockmaker of Newton's contemporaries have fallen by the wayside. The first is a mistaken attempt of church scholars' shoring up faith by reason. The second is the mistaken attempt of scientists to rationalize God in the mechanistic world of Newtonian physics. Knuth skirts all of these misguided efforts and provides a wealth of new perspectives on how faith in God can live comfortably with a total embrace of modern physical science, mathematics, and logic. The first lecture introduces Knuth's ideas behind his 3:16 project that began as a discussion group at his church on the 59 verse 16s in the third chapter of books in the Protestant bible. The choice of 3:16 is almost random. The primary determinant was that he wanted to be sure that there was at least one important verse a

In modern, Western, pluralistic, secular culture, it is currently still difficult for many to understand the interconnectedness of "science" and what is often called "religion", and to discuss many of the topics included in the text of this Knuth work. However, while this book could have been titled "Things that Society Rarely Talks About", the text specifically centers around the computer scientist and the software engineer. While the majority of "Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About" is in essence a transcript of Knuth's lectures at MIT, a transcript of a panel discussion also included in the concluding pages of the book, as well as the Q & A sessions following each of the 6 lectures, provide societal context in that the thoughts of other thinkers in this field are given argueably equal treatment alongside that of Knuth. I would argue that the content of the fourth lecture is a bit too much centered around the author's work on "3:16", but I found this material fascinating, especially in light of Knuth's third lecture on the difficulties of natural language translation and how this difficulty is not as prominent in computer science. As a software engineer, I consider this book to be an extensive (although sometimes incoherent) expansion to the occasional spiritual comments made by Frederick Brooks in his classic software engineering work, "The Mythical Man Month" - more specifially, the pages Brooks wrote on the "joy of the craft" in which he compares the joy of the software development process to "God's delight in making things", and his comments on "the delight of working in such a tractable medium" where one is "only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff". Guy Steele, of Sun Microsystems, notes in the panel discussion that "...the study of computer science, as we know it, is a human activity, so far; human activity is spiritual, at least in part; and therefore the study of computer science is spiritual, at least in part. This may seem to beg the question. My point is that by human activity I mean to imply activity with purpose. I want to talk here about purpose. Why do computer science? Because it's fun? Because it is beautiful? To earn enough money to buy mango ice cream at Toscanini's [an ice cream parlor near MIT]? To improve the lot of humankind? To serve God? For me, it is ALL of the above." Knuth's lectures, the Q & A, and the panel discussion are all presented in what appears to be a sincere discussion of related topics that many would rather not discuss. Both Knuth and the members of the panel admit that they do not have all the answers, and that there is some confusion. For example, a self-proclaimed "devout agnostic", Mitch Kapor, who designed Lotus 1-2-3, here discusses that during the 1970s he became a teacher of transcendental meditation - of which he describes it as a "...very interesting experience. I can tell you that people really don't levitate. In fact, it is a cult, at least if you get highly involved with

What trait does Knuth think he has in common with Bill Clinton? Are the assumptions of Chaos Theorists too real? Does Godel's Incompleteness trump Heisenberg's Uncertainty in discussions of faith? These and other nerdy nuggets are skillfully woven into Knuth's Alfred E. Neumann-meets-Albert Einstein excursion into theology. As with Knuth's technical writing, I was lulled into a false sense of complacency by Knuth's colloquial style and sense of humor. While this book is a transcription of lectures as well as Question & Answer sessions given by Knuth @ MIT discussing his modus operandi for writing _3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated_ , it was a much more thought provoking complement to _3:16_ than I had expected. For example, framing the discussion of man's Free Will and God's Omnipotence from the perspective of the Complexity Theory (from the Father of CT no less) sheds fresh light on this age old debate for theologians and philosophers alike. Knuth has the gift of being a serious scientist without taking himself too seriously and in the end, scientists may discover that Douglas Adams is right and that the Answer to the Ultimate Question really is 42. Yet, with this book, Knuth beckons us to enjoy the ride. And to keep asking our own questions.

This is not a book that will revolutionize your spiritual life, but if you'd like to spend some time in the company of a very intelligent Christian, you'll enjoy this book. I think it fair to say that Knuth is the greatest living computer scientist. He is also one of a number of prominent scientists (including Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne) who are willing to make their Christianity known. This tends to refute the popular perception that all scientists, or all intellectuals, are atheists. In my experience (and Knuth's experience, as evident from the audience questions in the book), a lot of atheists get their atheism blindly on authority, and whether or not you agree with him, contact with an intelligent Christian such as Knuth can be a very refreshing change!

About two-thirds of this book concerns Knuth's experiences writing a book entitled "3:16." Knuth decided to study the Bible through a sort of stratified random sample: taking Chapter 3, verse 16 from each book of the Bible and studying it in depth. These discussions do have their interest, but I do not feel that "Things A Computer Science Rarely Talks About" really stands on its own. A better title for this book would have been something like "3:16: The Story Behind The Book."Consider chapter 4. This is mostly a series of stories about how Knuth and Herrmann Zapf asked many of the world's leading calligraphers to illuminate the verses he used. He talks about the suble colors used to print them, the delicacy of the originals (not fully picked up by a 600 dpi scanner and requiring pixel-level editing to prepare them for reproduction). It therefore can only be described as irritating to be presented with these pictures, about fifty of them, in the form of little 2x3" halftone reproductions. I do not feel the book delivers much on the promise that Knuth will reveal "the many insights that [he] gained" from the work. He talks a good deal about the reasoning and the process behind the project and it is quite interesting, perhaps even inspiring in the sense of making one wish to do likewise. But his presentation of his own beliefs is rather muted and low-key. I perceive this as modesty, not evasion. Still, it is not what I expected. Consider chapter 4, again: we learn a great deal about how he feels about the esthetics of the calligraphy, how he edited them, how he dealt with issues like calligraphers who inadvertently made mistakes in the text. But are there really any religious insights here? Well, subtle ones, perhaps.I think he is sincere when he says, referring to "3:16," "I am not here today to sell copies of the book." In a discussion, someone asks "What would you recommend for computer science students who have never read the Bible?" and I believe Knuth is joking when he says "The number one recommendation is that they should certainly read my book. You know, it makes a wonderful Christmas gift. More seriously..."Chapters 5 ("Glimpses of God") and 6 ("God And Computer Science") are fascinating, and come close to delivering on the promise of the book. I would gladly read a book-length expansion of this material in these two chapters.Still, on finishing this book, I am aware of two feelings: a) an interest in reading "3:16," and b) an irritation with myself for having purchased this one.