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Computer science _is_ a social science* -- especially when it comes to success and failure of a social network. You can't separate the software from the social
by jdp23 15y ago
Computer science _is_ a social science* -- especially when it comes to success and failure of a social network. You can't separate the software from the social and organizational context it's used in.
* more at http://achangeiscoming.net/docs/cssocsci.html http://achangeiscoming.net/docs/cssocsci.html
- Locke1689 15y agoThat's going to be a hard sell. I do research in programming languages now and I think you'd be hard pressed to argue that the fundamental nature of my work is a social science. Especially since the initiating paper included a proof of correctness...
- jdp23 15y agoWell, it's not _just_ a social science. There's still plenty of interesting work to do with 1's and 0's and proofs. But even in "hard CS" areas like programming languages, the social since aspects are pretty significant. What influences the success of new languages and evolutions of existing ones? Why haven't some obviously good featuers like pre- and post-conditions and invariants been better integrated by most mainstream languages? How to make functional programming accessible to a lot more people?
- roel_v 15y agoOne dude putting a paper online arguing something doesn't make it true. CS is not a social science. At best, when you stretch definitions of 'within the field' enough, you can study things that are related to CS and have social implications, yes. That doesn't make CS a 'social science'.