Another recent discussion online asked "do you need to know assembly language to be a computer scientist?"

Sides quickly formed. On one side, it was a strict requirement. Some going so far as saying you had to start with it or at worst a language like C. On the other side you had people claiming that it's wholly unnecessary for most CS graduates like many of the classes we require of a CS major (I'm looking at you Calc II and beyond).

I don't dispute that many people with CS degrees have great tech careers and never program in assembly. Further, the idea that a low level assembly programmer describes what a "computer scientist looks like" or "should look like" is pretty off base.

On the other hand, I'd argue that a well educated computer scientist should have some knowledge of low level concepts which can probably best be explored through some exposure to assembly language.

To start, what is a computer scientist? As a field we still haven't worked that one out. Certainly, people employed as professors in computer science departments are pretty much, by definition, computer scientists but that's the minority of CS majors.

To me, and this isn't really a great formal definition, a person who employs the creative and problem solving techniques associated with computer science in their day to day can certainly call themselves a computer scientist.

It's a wishy washy definition, I know but to me, it works. Someone employed as a software engineer can be a computer scientist or they might not be. It depends on their job and how they approach it. Say said SE is given screen descriptions, layouts and what to do when events happen and they write code to implement this, they're not being a computer scientist. Likewise, if they implement an algorithm specifically given to them for a task. On the other hand, if the same person designs the interface making creative decisions involving accessibility and usability or solves a problem using or designing an algorithm then implementing one, then they would be, in my view acting as a computer scientist.

Of course, in the general sense a SE could be a real software engineer, software architect, or many more things as well.

So, does a computer scientist need to actively know assembly? No. That said, do they benefit from knowing something about it? I'd say yes.

Years ago, I was watching a special with Itzhak Perlman, arguably the greatest violinist of a generation and one of my favorites. He was talking to and playing with a bunch of klezmer musucians. Or rather, I should say trying to play with. Klezmer is something of a Jewish jazz with a lot of improvisation. Perlman understood this, could meaningfully converse about it with the other musucians but he had the hardest time trying to keep up with them. Nobody could seriously say that Izhak Perlman wasn't and isn't a brilliant musician and artist but he really couldn't play improvisational jazz. His training and art are just in a different corner of the music world. That said, he was certainly well versed in it. He knew jazz even though he didn't perform it.

I also saw this at a Bobby Mcferrin concert. He was performing with a small string orchestra. I think maybe it was Gidon Kremer's Kremerate Baltica but I don't remember. At one point he was calling out the individual orchestra members to do some improv. It did not go well. Again, these were all clearly master artists and they certainly knew and were comfortable with Jazz, just not performing it on the fly.

In case you really want to see what I'm talking about, I'll give one more example:

Having some knowledge of assembly, or more specifically, how low level things work is what I call a "latin" of CS. Understanding things like memory or how a processor works help an individual understand buffer overflows or why data types matter, why floating point calculations are innacurate or why a hash table has to be sparse. They may never program in assembly but some knowledge will make them a stronger computer scientist. I would say the same for my other CS latin - theory. They might not use it day to day but it will help shape their decisions and make them a stronger software engineer or whatever.

So, can you be a gainfully employed tech person and never have seen anything low level? Of course. Can you do computer science stuff and say the same? Sure. But a well educated, well rounded computer scientist will have had some exposure to low level concepts and have some base level understanding.