What is COMP 105 about?

COMP 105: Intro to Computer Science addresses questions like these:

• What are computers good for? What does computation mean and how is it related to, or different from, problem solving?
• What does it mean to define a formal, algorithmic way to solve a problem? How do we specify that? (i.e., What is the "language" for specifying that?)
• If computers are just electricity, wires, and on/off switches, how can we use them to
  • represent numbers? letters? images? video?
  • do calculations?
  • represent programs?
• Is there more than 1 formal way to sort a long list of names? If so, are some ways faster/easier than others?
• How can we improve how people interact with or communicate with computers?
• How far can we go in making computers more like us?
• What are the social and ethical issues introduced by delegating work or decisions to computers?