Computer Science Is Not Science
Is Computer Science really a science? Computer scientists don’t apply the scientific method. Testing is currently essential for implementing software correctly, but only because we’re either too lazy or incapable of verifying correctness beforehand due to the extreme complexity of the systems and tools we use. It all boils down to manipulating an abstract machine, in most cases a register machine, which is a mathematical construct. The colors that appear on your monitor and the data written to your hard drive are merely side effects of the mathematical operations we compute. I think Computer Science is mathematics, not science. In fact, many universities place their Computer Science program within the mathematics department, not the engineering department.
Tags: abstract machine, computer science, mathematics, register machine, scientific method
January 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Being a “true” science is overrated. All science is subject to the interpretation of the scientist, and thus even “facts” are only subjective truths that most people agree upon. Just look at how many bunk scientific ideas have come and gone. Science reflects what the current social system deems true, not what is actually fact.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
But facts aren’t subjective; they are verifiable by anyone with the appropriate skill level, e.g. gravity. That’s what makes them facts. Theories are what are susceptible to subjectivity and error. Gravity is just a theory, and may very well be incorrect in a broader scope, but in terms of objects we can see and easily measure, it appears to be correct, but remains only a theory; gravity is not proven to be true, only assumed to be. We have only to encounter one example that contradicts the theory to invalidate the theory. So the correctness of scientific theories also depends on the body of scientific knowledge supporting it, and thus may be invalidated as that knowledge is expanded or contradicted by further analysis or other discoveries.
March 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Hal Abelson’s introductory lecture in Computer Science from 1986 is legendary. The MIT professor starts out by telling how Computer Science is not a science and not very much about computers. Fortunately for us all, it’s all uphill from there!
Check out http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~hulld/q2004-01-14.html.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for the link! I’m about ten minutes in right now and it’s very interesting.