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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Computer Science a Science?
Message-ID: <294@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Mar-86 23:44:41 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.294
Posted: Sat Mar 22 23:44:41 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Mar-86 03:19:21 EST
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 39


The purpose of any academic discipline is to study, extend and organize
(put into perspective) a field of endeavor. More importantly, it is to
realize that it is not 'a science' or 'an art' at all but rather the
product of our minds in conjunction with our world. Categories are
often more destructive than helpful as attractive as they may seem.

Computer science is a broad reaching field encompassing investigations
into engineering, psychology, mathematics, linguistics, philosophy,
art, communications and just about anything else. What holds it
together is the notion of a machine with the ability to functionally
represent and test our understanding of our chosen area to concentrate
on.

Most likely it will break up into many fields, many being absorbed by
current disciplines. As an example, for the first time psychology is
being studied in a functional, almost engineering sense with a need
to produce models and test them (AI), and allow the theories to be
judged by this testing. Finally psychology discovers the 20th century.

If one had to define computer science more narrowly, it is the attempt
to organize these different endeavors and find that which is common
to all of them, the limitations and potentialities of the machine
they use. This is done both on paper (mathematical approaches) and
in the laboratory (the program), hopefully findings from either
technique are ultimately interchangeable (the theortical made applied,
the experimental described by theory.) At least this portion of computer
science will likely remain as a separate study.

I believe computer science in general (programming, theory) is like
the mathematics it relied on so heavily for its birth (indeed, it
may in fact be a new mutation of mathematics itself, to view a program
as a proof is probably quite a rational view.) The fact that mathematics
as a language and technique permeates engineering, physics and accounting
does not leave you confused as to what mathematics is (at least I hope
not!), thus is the case with computer science, to organize that which
we touch.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University