Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

notoriously Philip Wadler says that computer science has two problems: computer and science.

It's not about computers and "You don't put science on your name if you're a real science"

He prefers the name informatics.

source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IOiZatlZtGU




You don't put science on your name if you're a real science

Having flashbacks to when a close friend was getting an MS in Political Science, and spent the first semester in a class devoted to whether or not political science is a science.


Well? Don't keep us hanging.


Kinda like countries that feel the need to put “democratic” in their name.


Also applies to newspapers which include some version of "truth" in the title. (Russian propaganda "Pravda", Polish tabloid "Fakt", etc.)


Or "People"...


Or "Republic"...


Or "Of China"....


"Information science" is basically long form of "informatics" so that breaks it I'd say. Also, "information" tends to imply a focus on state and places computational aspects (operations performed on information) as second hand.

I've yet to find a classification I really like but this is an interesting take. I still tend to like CIS (Computing and Information Sciences). The problem with CS is it focuses on computation and puts state as second class. The problem with IS is it focuses on state and puts computing as second class. To me, both are equally important.


TBF informatics is "the study of computational systems"

I have studied informatics, but don't call myself an informatic, because I am not doing any research.

I call myself a programmer, because I am not doing engineering either.


> It's not about computers and "You don't put science on your name if you're a real science"

"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger W. Dijkstra [0], [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra

[1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Computer_science


Materials Science is about as sciency as you can get.


An economist friend of mine told me that once, so this isn't just a CS quip.


Informática is a common term in Spanish, as you probably know.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: