Keynote address—Remembrance of things past

I am very sensible of the great honor that you have bestowed upon me by asking me to give the opening paper in what I am certain will prove to be a most useful and productive symposium on the topic of scientific and numeric computation. In order to comply with Gene Golub's request I have been forced once again to think over what these terms mean now and what they have meant throughout time. At least in my case this is usually a worthwhile task requiring me to reappraise the subject and ask myself if this is what was intended by the fathers of the field.