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But the algorithm was by defi nition an abstraction, that aspect of com-
puting that most lent itself to isolation and formalization. Algorithms
were the mechanical procedures followed by a computer, but they were
not limited to the computer itself. In theory, algorithms lay at the heart
of all self-directed activity, whether mechanical, electrical, or biological.
Algorithms were the essence of intelligence, isolated and refi ned into a
precisely defi ned series of instructions for completing a task. One did not
even need a computer to study algorithms; in fact, actual computers were
more often than not simply a distraction. Where computers were clearly
human-made and particular, algorithms were conceptual and therefore
universal. “The notion of a mechanical process and of an algorithm,”
Peter Wegner would declare, “are as fundamental and general as the
concepts that underlie the empirical and mathematical sciences.”
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By
suggesting that the algorithm was as fundamental to the technical activity
of computing as Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion were to physics,
Knuth and his fellow computer scientists could claim full fellowship with
the larger community of scientists.
In addition to its claims to fundamental metaphysical signifi cance, the
algorithm provided aspiring computer scientists with a practical agenda
for advancing their discipline. Algorithms were amenable to mathemati-
cal analysis, which encouraged formalization and abstraction, but not
so much that they could be subsumed under applied mathematics, which
allowed the computer scientists to claim disciplinary autonomy. The
development of effi cient algorithms provided clear and well-defi ned
problems (along with some exemplary solutions) for students of the dis-
cipline to study and pursue. To borrow once again from Kuhn, algo-
rithms represent the ideal “puzzles” for normal scientists to solve:
challenging but not insoluble, intellectually interesting and yet still
technically familiar. As a disciplinary agenda, the study of the algorithm
has proved enormously productive. Knuth's
The Art of Computer
Programming
alone now spans three volumes and more than twenty-
one hundred pages—with four more volumes anticipated before it is
completed.
But while textbook histories are essential for the articulation of disci-
plinary identity, it is in the establishment of specifi c educational curricula
that such identities become tangible. It was the publication of the ACM's
“Curriculum '68” recommendations that fi rmly embedded the study of
the algorithm in the fabric of computer science education and research.
Curriculum '68 provided detailed guidelines for computer science pro-
grams at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The curriculum it
