approach problems? what methods do they use? and what types of results emerge?). The discussion below elucidates seven major themes without attempting to fully enumerate all the research subfields within computer science, to prescribe a research agenda, or to define the boundaries of computer science.

The character of a research field arises from the phenomena it seeks to understand and manipulate together with the types of questions the discipline seeks to answer about these phenomena. This section identifies phenomena and intellectual challenges central to computer science, describing the key ideas and the identifying work that has helped to develop those ideas. These broad themes (summarized in Box 1.1), more timeless than a comprehensive inventory of current topics would be, portray core ideas that computer science is concerned with.

Two of the fundamental techniques of computer science research are the manipulation of discrete information and symbolic representation. Some information is inherently discrete, such as money. Discrete approximation enables every kind of information to be represented within the computer by a sequence of bits (choices of 0 or 1) or the often more

Front Matter (R1-R14)

Prelude: Emily Shops at VirtualEmporia.com (1-8)

Part One: The Essential Character of Computer Science1 The Essential Character of Computer Science (9-24)

Part Two: Selected Perspectives on Computer Science 2 Exponential Growth, Computability, and Complexity (25-56)

3 Simulation (57-64)

4 Abstraction, Representation, and Notations (65-78)

5 Data, Representation, and Information (79-100)

6 Achieving Intelligence (101-126)

7 Building Computing Systems of Practical Scale (127-158)

8 Research Behind Everyday Computation (159-178)

9 Personal Statements of Passion About Computer Science Research (179-192)

Appendix: Agenda of July 25-26, 2001, Symposium (193-194)

Plates (195-202)