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I'm of the impression that computer science isn't considered a "science" field despite the name. Anyway, stuff like this is largely just math; other science fie

I'm of the impression that computer science isn't considered a "science" field despite the name. Anyway, stuff like this is largely just math; other science fields often move slower because you're at the mercy of natural experiments and expensive instruments (e.g., waiting for some burst of gravitational waves to arrive from some black hole collision that happened billions of years ago).

orlp 5y ago
Computer Science is neither a science, nor is it about computers. It is an awful name. Computational mathematics would be significantly better. The worst part is that most people pursuing a computer science degree actually want to learn about software engineering, so most curricula nowadays disappoint both the people that want to become software engineers ("why do I have to learn about formal grammar automata") and those that want to become computational mathematicians ("why do I have to do a course on agile?").
wongarsu 5y ago
Most of our day jobs are closer to engineering, but there is a very theoretical side of computer science, and algorithm design certainly fits there. As you said it has a lot of similarities to math, and there's no consensus on whether math is a science, so I won't comment on the "science-ness" of computer science. But I can say that mathematics is an ancient "science" which has been studied by great scholars for millennia, but many of the things we take for granted today are relatively recent: modern set theory was introduced 150 years ago by Cantor and Dedekind, meaning things like Russel's Paradox [1], Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem [2] and the Peano Axioms [3] have all been discovered after that, despite being taught in many (university-level) introductory math courses today. Rings are also relatively young [4]. In comparison, imaginary numbers are about 500 years old. 1: https://brilliant.org/wiki/russells-paradox/ https://brilliant.org/wiki/russells-paradox/ 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_... 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics)
chriswarbo 5y ago
I think of "computer science" somewhat like "engine science", AKA thermodynamics: they're both intimately tied to practical engineering (hardware/software; steam locomotives) and they're both intimately tied to abstract mathematics (computability, complexity theory; statistics, information). An easy way to reconcile this is to consider that everything is an engine (~ 'system that transforms energy'); and likewise that everything is a computer (~ a 'system that turns inputs to outputs'). Each field offers a different perspective, on different aspects of, the world :)

orlp 5y ago

Computer Science is neither a science, nor is it about computers. It is an awful name. Computational mathematics would be significantly better. The worst part is that most people pursuing a computer science degree actually want to learn about software engineering, so most curricula nowadays disappoint both the people that want to become software engineers ("why do I have to learn about formal grammar automata") and those that want to become computational mathematicians ("why do I have to do a course on agile?").

wongarsu 5y ago

Most of our day jobs are closer to engineering, but there is a very theoretical side of computer science, and algorithm design certainly fits there. As you said it has a lot of similarities to math, and there's no consensus on whether math is a science, so I won't comment on the "science-ness" of computer science. But I can say that mathematics is an ancient "science" which has been studied by great scholars for millennia, but many of the things we take for granted today are relatively recent: modern set theory was introduced 150 years ago by Cantor and Dedekind, meaning things like Russel's Paradox [1], Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem [2] and the Peano Axioms [3] have all been discovered after that, despite being taught in many (university-level) introductory math courses today. Rings are also relatively young [4]. In comparison, imaginary numbers are about 500 years old. 1: https://brilliant.org/wiki/russells-paradox/ https://brilliant.org/wiki/russells-paradox/ 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_... 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(mathematics)

chriswarbo 5y ago

I think of "computer science" somewhat like "engine science", AKA thermodynamics: they're both intimately tied to practical engineering (hardware/software; steam locomotives) and they're both intimately tied to abstract mathematics (computability, complexity theory; statistics, information). An easy way to reconcile this is to consider that everything is an engine (~ 'system that transforms energy'); and likewise that everything is a computer (~ a 'system that turns inputs to outputs'). Each field offers a different perspective, on different aspects of, the world :)