4 ms·

Despite the (horrible) name computer science, informatics is not science, is math. There is a big difference: in science you observe and try to understand somet

Despite the (horrible) name computer science, informatics is not science, is math. There is a big difference: in science you observe and try to understand something that already exists, the universe. In math (and informatics) you build your own universe with your set of rules. It means that you can and should understand everything (well, of course if you assume the hardware works perfectly as specified).

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
Computer science is not entirely math. Compilers, for instance, care about real-world performance, not theory. Physics is more mathematical than computer science, but there's no doubt that physics is a science.
29athrowaway 6y ago
Discrete math, computer science, etc. are sciences (although some people claim math is not a science... that's a discussion for another day). Software engineering, like all forms of engineering, is applied science plus processes based on empirical evidence.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  > Discrete math, computer science, etc. are sciences (although some people claim math is not a science I was surprised to see that, at least according to Wikipedia, opinions (of people of consequence) vary on this point. [0] Seems to me perfectly clear that math is not a science, as it's not empirical, but this doesn't seem to be universally agreed upon. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Mathematics_as_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Mathematics_as_sci...
bnegreve 6y ago
> There is a big difference: in science you observe and try to understand something that already exists, the universe. An important part of CS research is empirical. It's not because you have designed something yourself, that you don't need to observe it to understand it, or that you can answer any question about this thing analytically. For example, the folks from high performance computing conduct loads of experiments to observe and understand which CPU design work best and why. Deep Learning people also run lots of experiments understand which model is easier to train and corroborate theoretical results from learning theory. etc.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

Computer science is not entirely math. Compilers, for instance, care about real-world performance, not theory. Physics is more mathematical than computer science, but there's no doubt that physics is a science.

29athrowaway 6y ago

Discrete math, computer science, etc. are sciences (although some people claim math is not a science... that's a discussion for another day). Software engineering, like all forms of engineering, is applied science plus processes based on empirical evidence.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> Discrete math, computer science, etc. are sciences (although some people claim math is not a science I was surprised to see that, at least according to Wikipedia, opinions (of people of consequence) vary on this point. [0] Seems to me perfectly clear that math is not a science, as it's not empirical, but this doesn't seem to be universally agreed upon. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Mathematics_as_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Mathematics_as_sci...

bnegreve 6y ago

> There is a big difference: in science you observe and try to understand something that already exists, the universe. An important part of CS research is empirical. It's not because you have designed something yourself, that you don't need to observe it to understand it, or that you can answer any question about this thing analytically. For example, the folks from high performance computing conduct loads of experiments to observe and understand which CPU design work best and why. Deep Learning people also run lots of experiments understand which model is easier to train and corroborate theoretical results from learning theory. etc.