The ideas they didn't understand, and didn't think relevant, are understood by most music school freshman. Since the arrival of computers some believe this gap is narrowing. I don't believe this to be the case. It is foolish for artists to think that, because they can use a paint program on a Macintosh, they are now technologists. It is just as foolish for an engineer or scientist to think that, because they can make a pretty sound with a menu option, they are musicians.
All fields continue to grow and specialties continue narrowing their foci.
The two cultures grow and bifurcate into many more. As the field of sound computation develops it's worth remembering that, in the set of sounds, music is a large subset that intersects with many others. We live in a culture that surrounds itself with music. While we hear music constantly we rarely listen anymore, and yet are subtly conditioned by its presence. This is not knowledge gathered from the study of natural phenomena, but from observation of our culture and its habits, and through years of experience making and listening to music.