Ask HN: Who's the Carl Sagan of Comp Sci?
Does our field have a charming figure who popularizes Computer Science the same way that Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Neil deGrasse Tyson popularize physics? If so, who? If not, why?
Haha that sounds awesome actually.
hmm GEB was a charming book which popularized CS, you could say. uh .. The guy in Mr Robot? ...
Well, I guess if you had to ask, the answer's no. Well, Cosmos (the Sagan one, haven't seen anything from those other 2) was about a lot more than just physics. And it was a story of many centuries and countries, about many people who are household names. CS has a relatively short history, with most of the developments fairly if not extremely abstract and not easy to explain in a popular form. >layers of slightly out-of-focus binary digits flow across the screen< I'm not sure how much of it people want to know. But still, most things are fascinating when presented well.
I want Julia Evans to be 'it'. :-D
We do have a few already if you want to count Elon Musk, The Woz, and the late Mr. Jobs
There of course is the likes of Linus torvalds, Dennis Ritchie, John Carmack, etc... but they really are just busy doing their thing.
Really I think it boils down to comp sci not yet having a media outlet like the show “cosmos” was for Astro-physics getting the mainstream public’s attention.
We just need a prime time must see tv show, with a charming host.
The problem is Comp Sci isn’t very exciting for those who aren’t already comp scientists.