Informatics in our Age

"The ability to communicate with each other through language and a conscious processing of information are essential constitutional elements of Man."
F. R. Güntsch 1991

Informatics (Computer Science) encompasses science and practice, technology and application of a systematic processing of information, with special regard to performance by maschines. Informatics is a science with primeval roots, the name only came into use in recent times. Unusual is also its present drive, its scope, and even more its significance after it was burdened with many tasks that sixty years ago were deemed unthinkable.

Rock drawing from Bretagne, France about 2000 BC

How far-reaching informatics is and where its limits lie have yet to be determined. Informatics has a temptingly close relation to its neighbouring disciplines, above all electronic communications engineering and mathematics, and also to organization and management sciences. For almost all sciences, and even for industry and agriculture, trade and transport, administration and jurisdiction, informatics has become an indispensable support factor, a key discipline. The field of employment for a computer scientist is continuously expanding, and computer scientists are eagerly sought even in times of unemployment. Informatics is gaining importance in the political economy of developed countries.

Friedrich L. Bauer
Wilfried Brauer
Eike Jessen
Manfred Broy

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