What is computer science? Ask Google or Alexa, and you'll get an answer like "the study of the principles and use of computers." That doesn't really capture the breadth of the field.

But how can you get an answer in a fraction of a second? Now that's computer science!

Lance Fortnow will explore

• the ideas developed by computer scientists that transport your Google query to the cloud 
• how the cloud keeps track of the massive amount of information needed to answer the question 
• how algorithms and machine learning figure out what your question means and how best to respond 

All these take place in that six-tenths of a second from the time you make the query until answers magically appear, while keeping your information secure and private all the time.