A plea for modesty

Abstract

From time to time a movement arises that promises to save the world, or at least to make it vastly better. The extraordinary achievements of digital computing make it a locus of such movements today. Yet we should be wary; when movements fail they provoke backlash that rejects the more limited gains that they might have afforded. Today "computational thinking" has a considerable following, and I would like to discuss some problems with its discourse. It is too often presented in terms that could be interpreted as arrogant or that are overstated. Its descriptions too often lack appropriate examples, and perhaps as a result, it gets misunderstood in casual writing.