Mathematics, Logic, and Engineering in Computing
Peter J. Denning, Matti Tedre · IEEE Annals of the History of Computing · 2021
From its beginning in the 1950s, noncomputing academics were skeptical about computer science because it seemed strong on technology and weak on theory. To answer the critics and shore up their case, computer scientists turned to a rich trove of computationalmethods from logic andmathematics.Computing from ancient times focused on methods of manipulating symbols that could be performed by people untrained in mathematics. Examples include ancient Babylonian algorithm- like step-by-step rules, Greek mathematical procedures like the Euclidean algorithm or the sieve of Eratosthenes, and al-Khwarizmi’s algorithmic techniques. In the twentieth century, the mathematical logicians Turing, G€odel, Church, Kleene, and Post provided a solid foundational theory for the new field of computer science, showingwhat can and cannot becomputed.