Ask HN: What are good computer science papers for fierce debate?
There are countless lists of top computer science papers. Such papers typically describe an elegant solution with clarity. However, they settle the problem so well that they do not lend themselves to fierce discussion and debate.
What are good computer science papers that do spark discussion and debate?
I am thinking about the way that a novel, poem or short story can inspire discussion about its many themes and interpretations. What computer science papers might inspire similar reactions among hackers? Ideally, I'm looking for real computer science papers rather than, say, blog posts which take a controversial stand on hot-button issues.
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I suspect Turing’s Test is a topic that lends itself to philosophical debate and is accessible to non experts.
With most modern papers the most likely source of debate is their assumptions and methodology. For instance, you can probably read any number of machine learning papers which follow the format of (data set -> result on that set) and critique their methodology. (Basically, for this category of debate, if you’re not finding problems you’re not thinking hard enough.)
I don’t know what people write about in the fields of HCI, VR and AR but there’s probably lots of stuff to debate about their assumptions there.
Or you could go for the bitcoin paper which is at a unique intersection of CS, economics and game theory. There’s shockingly little intelligent writing on this topic.