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From: litow@uwm-cs.UUCP (Dr. B. Litow)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Is Computer Science Science?
Message-ID: <673@uwm-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Sep-87 09:31:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwm-cs.673
Posted: Thu Sep 17 09:31:08 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 14:33:58 EDT
References: <5113@sunybcs.UUCP> <6195@apple.UUCP> <5068@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <2474@cvl.umd.edu>
Organization: U of Wi-Milw, College of Engineering
Lines: 31
Keywords: computers Science not bloody likely
Summary: CS is theory of computation,not the body of its applications.

In article <2474@cvl.umd.edu>, ramesh@cvl.umd.edu (Ramesh Sitaraman) writes:
> In article <737@elmgate.UUCP> ram@elmgate.UUCP (Randy Martens) writes:
> >I am of the firm opinion that there is NO such thing as
> >computer science.  
> 
> Unfortunately you are totally wrong!!!  The scientific part of CS
> deals with unravelling the nature of computation. This is the 
> object of study of theoretical areas such as Complexity theory,
> recursive function theory, programming language semantics etc. 
> Computation is an abstract process but unlike other abstract 
> formalisms is immediately applicable and can be realised through
> physical computers. Thus there has been such an overwhelming 
> growth in computer applications that the applicational aspects of CS are
> more evident to an *outsider* than the theoretical core. 

I agree with this poster. I fact I would go on to say that the design of
programming languages,systems and such things as network protocols,etc.
are also just applications. I earlier posted my belief that CS is an entirely 
new branch of mathematics so that in a way
CS is indeed not a science in the sense that physics is a science. However,
there are profound issues at the border of CS and physics,for example which
I take as a sound indication of the depth of CS. The confounding of CS with
its applications can only impede progress especially in the matter of new 
applications.

The failure to consider 'TCS' as real CS is becoming a serious matter and
I think that the current accreditation issue for CS in colleges must be
resolved in a manner that places sufficient emphasis on computation theory.
I close with an example. The emergence of NC and related parallel computing
models out of alternating Turing machine studies of the late 70's is
a clear indication of the power of good theory.