Computer science should be called logic (opens in new tab)

(youtube.com)

1 pointslearningstud1y ago10 comments

10 comments

9 comments · 3 top-level

ultra-boss1y ago· 3 in thread

We can apply logic to anything and everything. What makes computer science singularly deserving of this label?

learningstudOP1y ago

Computer science studies and invents logic whereas the math community has departed from logic as a whole.

ultra-boss1y ago

Computer science "invents" logic? What do you mean by that?

Are you familiar with the philosophy of logic and philosophical logic? Or formal semantics, which utilizes tools from the fields of symbolic logic and mathematics to generate (very precise) theories around the semantics of natural language expressions?

voidhorse1y ago

I would say that the working, active logicians study and invent logics, not the computer scientists, who work with the narrower field of objects known as models of computation.

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learningstudOP1y ago· 2 in thread

At the very end of the video, the speaker quipped that computer science is not just about computers and an actual science doesn't have "science" in its name. The development of programming languages, compilers, SMT/MILP solvers, type theories, and proof assistants allude to the true nature of computer science, i.e., logic and its automation. It can be argued that computer science is even more fundamental than math, e.g., recursion/complexity, intuitionism/constructivism, linear logic, homotopy type theory.

beardyw1y ago

> It can be argued that computer science is even more fundamental than math

Perhaps "touches on more fundamental concepts than". Otherwise the fact it has the word "computer" in it and being only decades old makes being fundamental hard to support.

learningstudOP1y ago

Nowadays, logicians and type theorists find home in the computer science department instead of the math department. My whole point is to get rid of "computer" and "science" from "computer science."

voidhorse1y ago· 1 in thread

Computation is a sibling (or maybe child) of logic, it is not a superset of logic. I like Wadler a lot and get that the Curry-Howard isomorphism makes it tempting to view them as the same thing, but logic is field of far vaster proportions and history. I think "computer science" is properly called computability theory.

The proposal in the HN title is a bit like saying "calculus should be called mathematics".

learningstudOP1y ago

Try programming in a proof assistant to see how inseparable computation and logic are. It gets more fundamental than the Curry-Howard correspondence when homotopy type theory enters the scene.

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10 comments

9 comments · 3 top-level

ultra-boss1y ago· 3 in thread

We can apply logic to anything and everything. What makes computer science singularly deserving of this label?

learningstudOP1y ago

Computer science studies and invents logic whereas the math community has departed from logic as a whole.

ultra-boss1y ago

Computer science "invents" logic? What do you mean by that?

voidhorse1y ago

I would say that the working, active logicians study and invent logics, not the computer scientists, who work with the narrower field of objects known as models of computation.

1 more reply

learningstudOP1y ago· 2 in thread

beardyw1y ago

> It can be argued that computer science is even more fundamental than math

Perhaps "touches on more fundamental concepts than". Otherwise the fact it has the word "computer" in it and being only decades old makes being fundamental hard to support.

learningstudOP1y ago

Nowadays, logicians and type theorists find home in the computer science department instead of the math department. My whole point is to get rid of "computer" and "science" from "computer science."

voidhorse1y ago· 1 in thread

The proposal in the HN title is a bit like saying "calculus should be called mathematics".

learningstudOP1y ago

Try programming in a proof assistant to see how inseparable computation and logic are. It gets more fundamental than the Curry-Howard correspondence when homotopy type theory enters the scene.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse