Computational law. See: http://logic.stanford.edu/complaw/complaw.html
Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
81–90 of 183 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#82Blockchain, though no one on hn really understands it. :D
It's an unfortunate characteristic of many in the cryptocurrency community, that they think anyone who doesn't support crypto simply doesn't understand it. And by extension, as soon as they do understand it they will become supporters. No. There are those who do understand blockchain and still don't support it. A great example is professor Jorge Stolfi. He is one of the more prominent detractors, and yet he routinely…
I tried looking up the arguments of Jorge Stolfi, however my Spanish is insufficient.
I don't claim to contradict that he is against the concept of cryptocurrencies or blockchain in general, but I fail to find evidence that he is against the technology in general.
I do find evidence he is opposed to Bitcoin in specific, or at least warns against it.
Could you point me to English writings where he argues against blockchain/cryptocurrency in general?
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#83Swarm Computing. The hardware and networking to make it practical and useful exist now, but the field is still in its infancy. There‘s some discussion about its use in autonomous driving, construction, warfare.
What makes swarm computing different from distributed computing?
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#84The hype is where the money is and if you look at the established emerging tech, AI and IoT are projected to get most funding and create most disruption in the years to come https://uk.pcmag.com/feature/94662/blockchain-and-robots-buz...
The cutting-edge emerging tech I feel will be in the way we engage with data and tech and Augmented Intelligence (assistive) will see huge advancements.
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#85Almost all of the answers on this list are not fields that are "emerging" but fields that "have already emerged". The ideal emerging field is one that's so obscure we haven't heard of it yet, but so important that we will. If there are widely disseminated books on Amazon about your field, it's not emerging. If there are hundreds of professionals cranking out papers about your field, it's also not emerging. Emerging f…
On the philosophical side, I recently published a paper which could potentially lead to a whole new genre: making actual scientific (=falsifiable) progress on the previously-ineffable question, "Do we live in a simulation?"
"A type of simulation which some experimental evidence suggests we don't live in" https://philpapers.org/archive/ALEATO-6.pdf
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#86Process Mining [1]. When I programmed a rather complex logistics simulator at work I told my coworkers 'whoever comes up with a way of instantiating a simulator from data will be praised forever'. Turned out process discovery is a thing (well, one of _the_ things in PM). And there's so much cool stuff to do and being done. I'm now on the last stretch of my doctorate researching the mining of typical plans in non-comp…
Have you ever had a look into analyzing processes with a graph database like e.g. ArangoDB. Wonder if that would make sense for your needs. You can traverse along the processes, find patterns or use distributed graph processing with Pregel analyze from different angels. edit:typo
I haven't, no, but I know there are initiatives in Process Mining that closely relate to knowledge graphs, etc. and
wouldn't be surprised if there are groups working on that.
I'm particularly working with the mining of plans (as in Automated Planning) in declarative process models. If I have a chance I'll look into it, thanks for the heads up
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rust looks like a step towards practical formal verification just because of its design philosophy. I think what we're doing is making engineering languages more and more verifiable as research languages become more and more expressive. Eventually they'll meet in the middle and we'll have formal verification in "real life."
No progress in language theory can fix the fundamental problem of software verification: you need a formal specification to have anything to verify. Who wants to write not only a detailed spec for their code, but a spec that has well defined semantics in some kind of logic? Nobody, that's who. There are very few properties that you care about that are both sufficiently easy to encode in a formal specification and not…
Even more, software development now involves an assumption of the average manager or customer that some extra feature can be added halfway through.
Is the customer going to be happy with "we've billed $X for a formal spec and that means that we can't make the change that you want, that seems simple without $Y dollars for changes to it and the code." Notice that software methodologies have gone the opposite direction here, with Extreme Programming basically aiming to make all of the programmer's activities revolve around exactly what and only what the customer has actually requested.
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! I studied law before CS and now I learn all these algorithms which deal with questions about how to do something efficiently – and these algorithms are unkown by all these people thinking about important questions in this field. And I think this also applies to other fields. I gave the book "Algorithms To Live By" (which is basically an overview of CS algorithms) to a medicine student and he was immediately insp…
Slightly off-topic but I wanted to ask why and when did you start studying CS after law. I recently graduated from law school and now am an intern at a law firm. I have a strong interest for CS, and it bothered me for a long time that I went to law school instead of CS. I'v overcome those feelings over the years and dedicated myself to become a lawyer. But your post caught my interest. I'd be glad if you could share…
After my law degree I worked for a year in a big international law firm (I didn't yet had my license, so I was a kind of trainee – similar to you position right now). I realised that there is a huge interest in technical solutions to make the work more efficient (often labeled as "Legal Tech"). But there was very little actual understanding of technologie, which I think is one of the reasons why there aren't yet many real world application which are really making a difference. That was when I decided to go back to university for a CS degree.
Some learnings so far: 1) I get great feedback for my decision from other lawyers, who are genereally very interested but not well versed in tech. 2) Legal Tech feels a bit overhyped right now, but eventually it will change the field drastically. Law firms need lawyers who have technical skills. And that doesn't necessarily mean a whole CS degree, some programming skills etc. will already do it.
I personally love tech that much that I don't want to go back to a law firm to practise law, but rather actually develop technology. But for you, if you want to become a lawyer, I can promise you that you will find a fertil ground for your interest. It soon will be one of the most sought after skills for law firms. So if you learn some programming (maybe you already know some), take some online courses (there are great resources for CS online), then the next time your law firm gets offered a (as magic advertised) ML tool or needs to implement a new tech solution which really influcences the workflow, you will be the star of the firm for being a critical but competent colleague. Or if you're starting your own law firm, I think there is great potential for a more automated workflow. In your position, I would be very glad for you CS interest – you in the right field and it is the right time for it!:)
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! I studied law before CS and now I learn all these algorithms which deal with questions about how to do something efficiently – and these algorithms are unkown by all these people thinking about important questions in this field. And I think this also applies to other fields. I gave the book "Algorithms To Live By" (which is basically an overview of CS algorithms) to a medicine student and he was immediately insp…
Slightly off-topic but I wanted to ask why and when did you start studying CS after law. I recently graduated from law school and now am an intern at a law firm. I have a strong interest for CS, and it bothered me for a long time that I went to law school instead of CS. I'v overcome those feelings over the years and dedicated myself to become a lawyer. But your post caught my interest. I'd be glad if you could share…
I'm gonna go one step further with the off-topicness. Do you get much of an opportunity working within law to focus on technology?
I'm about to go back to University to study law but I would love to be able to combine Law with technology. Seems like an interesting area.
Re: Ask HN: What are the most interesting emerging fields in computer science?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an unfortunate characteristic of many in the cryptocurrency community, that they think anyone who doesn't support crypto simply doesn't understand it. And by extension, as soon as they do understand it they will become supporters. No. There are those who do understand blockchain and still don't support it. A great example is professor Jorge Stolfi. He is one of the more prominent detractors, and yet he routinely…
I tried looking up the arguments of Jorge Stolfi, however my Spanish is insufficient. I don't claim to contradict that he is against the concept of cryptocurrencies or blockchain in general, but I fail to find evidence that he is against the technology in general. I do find evidence he is opposed to Bitcoin in specific, or at least warns against it. Could you point me to English writings where he argues against block…
Perhaps the reason why your Spanish was insufficient for his writings is that his writings are in Portuguese ;)
Here's his primary English writing on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general (not necessarily blockchain), sent to the SEC: https://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-batsbzx-2016-30/batsbzx20163...