March 01, 2004

The God of technology himself answered my Cord article bewailing the futility of studying computer science in the age of outsourcing. Bill Gates went on a lecture tour last week trying to convince students that they can still earn a living writing code in America.

His sermons at prestigious American universities sounded full of hype and false promises, like pages taken from a sacred text. “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” the God of technology seemed to ask. “I’m [still] excited about the future of computing.”

Gates can afford to be excited since Microsoft will profit handsomely by outsourcing jobs and taking advantage of the oversupply of graduates. But his exuberance is not shared by the multitudes who have lost faith now that high-tech jobs are disappearing.

Since I never had much faith from the beginning, I lost nothing. I didn’t expect the high-tech honeymoon to last forever, so I combined Computer Science with English when I enrolled in university — this lead to fierce arguments with my parents and books thrown against the walls late in the night. I was secretly glad when the high-tech crash finally happened. My intuition was magic.

But like Gates, I’m fairly excited about computer science, as a discipline. I don’t think that my programming prowess will help me get a job, but technology has certainly allowed me to express myself wonderfully. The field of computing seems full of potential and mystery, and I’m still looking for amazing ways of combining my study of literature with Computer Science.

Is this faith?