Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

computer science

Science Book Review: Complexity – A Guided Tour

Book Cover featuring the palm of a hand, some binary strings, and a close up of a leaf
Don’t expect much discussion of palms or leaves inside. (Cover art by Oxford University Press)

When I reviewed Underbug a couple of weeks ago, I supposed many readers would enjoy the storytelling skill of author and journalist Lisa Margonelli even though I was hoping for more science. Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell has plenty of math and science, which is fine by me yet may not be to everyone’s taste. As it happens, the subjects of both books overlap; the complexity of termite mounds is one stop on Mitchell’s tour. Notably, neither book offers a compelling conclusion to the search for unifying principles that generate complexity; just defining the term in a quantifiably useful way continues to elude complexity scientists. Margonelli and Mitchell agree that we are still waiting for Carnot.
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Science Corner: More Machine Now Than Man

minsky mann photo
Marvin Minsky freely giving a lecture with the aid of a machine which presumably is not capable of having a say in the matter. (Photo by jeanbaptisteparis )

ESN contributor and friend of the blog J. Nathan Matias and some colleagues are writing a series of articles on artificial intelligence to introduce Christian audiences to important topics and themes. They have an introductory essay which will link to additional articles as they appear in the weeks to come. Some of those are already available; for now I wanted to bring the series to your attention, and later this month we’ll discuss the specifics. I’m particularly keen on “Relating to Artificial Persons” as I’m very interested in how our relationships with our simulated human agents interact and influence our relationships with actual humans.
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Candidate For What? — Collegiate Chemistry

Introduction

Thank-you to Dwight Schwartz, Ph.D., the Mid-Atlantic Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries, for taking a few minutes to share a glimpse of his undergraduate & graduate school journey. I am really looking forward to how Candidate For What? will unfold and what insights he will relate along the way not only in this series, but also in future contributions to the ESN blog. Stay tuned. To God be glory! ~ Tom

Thank-you to Dwight Schwartz, Ph.D., for continuing his  series by sharing a glimpse of his undergraduate and graduate school journey. A few questions for you as you dive into Part 2 and 3 (Click here for Part 1):

  • How do you relate to Dwight’s journey through college (and possibly graduate school)?
  • Are you (or did you) follow the recommendations of academic mentors?
  • Have you found your studies giving you a larger perspective on real life?
  • How do you share your journey in higher ed with others? In what manner does your faith relate to your vocation? Note: If you have interest in sharing your story with Emerging Scholars, please click here to read a description of writing for the blog and drop me an email. ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director of ESN, editor of ESN’s blog and Facebook Wall.

Part 2

Two years after finishing high school – I was working to save some money for college – I started taking college courses. And I started to get a bit of a handle on issues of career choice, etc., when, as a college freshman at Messiah College, I pursued not only a major in Chemistry but also a minor in Computer Science. I liked what I already knew of computers, i.e., typing on a display computer in the local department store:

10 print “hello”
20 GOTO 10

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