That was true when Dijkstra said it, but just as mathematics is increasingly using computers as they go into realms that mere humans can't completely explore without them (and this will only increase over time), computer scientists are increasingly being called upon to actually program more things.
Theorize about a P2P system to your heart's content, but until you've implemented it, you don't understand it well enough to write more than a preliminary (and nearly worthless) paper. And it would be nice if said system wasn't a steaming pile, because those actually take longer to make, you know. Theorize about a computer vision algorithm to your heart's content, but until you try it you're just imagining things. Theorize about how wonderful your robotic control theory is to your heart's content, but until you actually put all the pieces together and see if it actually works you're just dreaming.
Sure, in a world where "Dijkstra's Algorithm" is a genuine breakthrough, you can live without a computer, but that world is disappearing for many disciplines, leaving computer scientists who really do need to program.
(I italicized that because I am aware that there are computer science disciplines that can still get by without computers, like complexity theory. But there are other things that are quite thoroughly computer science that can't do it without computers anymore. Stuff that Dijkstra would never have been able to do in a world where a megahertz was precious.)
Theorize about a P2P system to your heart's content, but until you've implemented it, you don't understand it well enough to write more than a preliminary (and nearly worthless) paper. And it would be nice if said system wasn't a steaming pile, because those actually take longer to make, you know. Theorize about a computer vision algorithm to your heart's content, but until you try it you're just imagining things. Theorize about how wonderful your robotic control theory is to your heart's content, but until you actually put all the pieces together and see if it actually works you're just dreaming.
Sure, in a world where "Dijkstra's Algorithm" is a genuine breakthrough, you can live without a computer, but that world is disappearing for many disciplines, leaving computer scientists who really do need to program.
(I italicized that because I am aware that there are computer science disciplines that can still get by without computers, like complexity theory. But there are other things that are quite thoroughly computer science that can't do it without computers anymore. Stuff that Dijkstra would never have been able to do in a world where a megahertz was precious.)