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- From: bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (Stephen J Bevan)
- Newsgroups: sci.logic,sci.philosophy.meta,sci.math
- Subject: Re: What is Computer Science (was: Natural Kinds)
- Message-ID: <BEVAN.92Nov11113345@hippo.cs.man.ac.uk>
- Date: 11 Nov 92 11:33:45 GMT
- References: <1992Nov4.200546.2196@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> <Bx8yvo.6ty@unx.sas.com>
- <1992Nov8.210316.5922@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>
- <1992Nov9.005241.29492@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
- <BxGBsJ.8qG@unx.sas.com>
- Sender: news@cs.man.ac.uk
- Followup-To: sci.logic
- Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester
- Lines: 20
- In-reply-to: sasghm@theseus.unx.sas.com's message of 9 Nov 92 13:50:43 GMT
-
- In article <BxGBsJ.8qG@unx.sas.com> sasghm@theseus.unx.sas.com (Gary Merrill) writes:
- Do you see CS as having any immediate empirical content in the
- manner of physics, chemistry, biology, etc.?
-
- What are "etc." in this case? I'm still waiting to see any mention of
- a "science" that isn't (IMHO) a "natural science".
-
- As for empirical content, what about the example of routing via
- simmulated annealing? There is no way to check this is any good
- without experimenting (i.e. writing the code for the router and trying
- it on as many boards as you can find). As I noted before you may not
- consider this CS as a computer was only used to prove the method
- worked (ignoring the fact that routing has an obvious application in
- the design of computers). However, if you do have this view, I would
- be interested to know under what banner you felt this work lay.
-
- bevan
-
- BTW In case your wondering, the above isn't my work, I just happen to
- know a person who has done a lot of work in the area.
-