Is Computer Science Really Science?
As a recent graduate studying AI and Robotics, you can imagine how I responded to finding out that the credibility of my degree was in question. I was blindsided by the weight of the little ‘c’ in ‘MSc’ (which honestly always kind of bugged me). That one little letter makes a clear distinction between a masters in science and a masters in computer science. But just how different are the two fields? Can I call myself a real scientist?
Computer science is often defined as the study of computers and computational systems. But that doesn’t really tell us much. In the 2005 paper Is computer science science? (which sparked this spiral of doubt), Peter Denning defines it as the science of information processes and their interactions with the world, defending the field of computer science against critics who claim that true science deals with the fundamental laws of nature, and thus man made computers do not qualify. Additionally, there are people who contest that the principles of computer science truly belong to other fields such as physics, electrical engineering and mathematics.
Denning and others (like myself) subscribe to the belief that field of computer science encompasses a wide range of topics and can be divided into several sub-disciplines, including but not limited to:
- Algorithm design and analysis
- Theory of computation
- Programming languages and software engineering
- Computer systems and architecture
- Databases and information systems
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Human-computer interaction and user interface design
- Graphics and visualization
- Computer networks and distributed systems
Computer scientists use the principles and techniques of computer science to design, implement, and evaluate computational systems and applications.
Today there is a great deal of excitement around AI research, specifically in areas like natural language processing and computer vision.But much like at the time of Denkins writing his paper, there is still a credibility problem in the field of computer science due to constant overhype and missed projections. For instance, people have been claiming that they would soon build artificially intelligent systems that would rival and replace human experts since the 1960s.
There is still a tendency to let excitement around new discoveries build up to unwarranted hype and overly optimistic projections for computing milestones. Nonetheless, computer science has a significant impact on a wide range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, transportation and manufacturing. And to be fair, given enough time, the field seems to make good on even its most ambitious claims and pursuits. It can be argued that the large language models of today pass the Turing test with natural language text generation. There have also been remarkable breakthroughs in science and medicine due to computer science, from genome editing to protein folding.
While some may argue that the media and marketers have infiltrated the research space of computer science, it is tough to say with all the studies being done around computing today that it is not a science.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about computer science is that It is constantly forming relationships with other fields; overlapping with the physical, social, and life sciences, opening new research fields. Examples of these overlaps include bioinformatics, biometrics, neural computing, and quantum computing.
For this reason, regardless of how one feels about its status as a true science, computer science is considered one of the most versatile and in-demand fields of study today.
References
Denning, P. (2005) Is computer science science?, ifba.edu.br. Available at: http://www.ifba.edu.br/professores/antoniocarlos/cacmApr05.pdf (Accessed: January 30, 2023).