Observations about the development of theoretical computer science

Abstract

This paper gives a personal account of some developments in automata theory and computational complexity theory. Though the account is subjective and deals primarily with the research areas of direct interest to the author, it discusses the underlying beliefs and philosophy which guided this research as well as the intellectual environment and the ideas and contacts which influenced it. An attempt is also made to draw some general conclusions about computer science research and to discuss the nature of theoretical computer science.