HackerTube.dev

SICP / What is "Computer Science" ?

LarryNorman · 131.1K views · 2006-09-12 · 10:00

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

An excerpt from Hal Abelson's opening SICP lecture introducing computer science and contrasting declarative and imperative knowledge. He argues that computer science is not really a science and is more like magic or engineering of ideas.

On Hacker News

Cited in debates over whether computer science is a science, and for Abelson's line that it is neither a science nor about computers.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2008–2014

Topics

University lectures & coursesFunctional programmingComputability & complexity theory
Search by tags
sicphal abelsoncomputer sciencedeclarative programmingscheme

What people said

tyn · 2008-09 · Recommendation

"Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science." - Hal Abelson I would also recommend the first minutes of [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
kylebrown · 2014-08 · Reference

Hal Abelson disagrees with you. "Computer Science is a terrible name for this business. First of all, its not a science. It might engineering, or it might be art. But we'll actually see that computer -- so-called science -- actually has a lot in common with magic."[1] 1. [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
imaginaryunit · 2012-02 · Reference

Feynman's view on CS is similar by Hal Abelson's take on the term (see [VIDEO] ). Abelson's point about CS being more like magic has always stuck with me.

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by LarryNorman, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources