
Ask HN: “Computer Science” not a real science? - offset1
What is your opinion? How would you name it differently? I know there are plenty of studies&#x2F;fields with the name &quot;Science&quot; and the same really holds, but what about Computer Science specifically?
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jbn
Indeed, none of the disciplines that have the word "science" in their names
are sciences! ("social science" is another example... definitely not a
science!)

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cocktailpeanuts
that's a good point. there is no such thing as "chemical science", or
"physical science"

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dekhn
Technically, CS isn't science, but rather a form of pure and applied
mathematics.

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mrkeen
I think it's mostly engineering, somewhat mathematics, and a little bit
science.

CS papers introduce new ideas, often with proofs (maths). They also
incrementally improve the way things are done (engineering).

CS practitioners try to solve real-world problems to maximise value and
minimise costs (engineering again).

Science is about investigating the unknown, formulating hypotheses and
checking them against measurements. While measurement is done in computing, it
usually boils down to a fairly engineering-centric set of metrics (how fast is
this algorithm and how much memory does it use?)

Here are some made-up sciencey-type headlines that we _don 't_ see:

    
    
      * Scientists closer to understanding how a CPU works.
    
      * Researcher discovers first non-Turing-complete programming language.
      
      * Macs transmit 10% more JSON data than PCs.
    
      * Replication study fails to compress data using tar.

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Gollapalli
It's not a natural science, but it is most certainly a formal science, in the
same way that mathematics and philosophy have been traditionally been
considered to be.

