Computing as model-based empirical science

Abstract

Is computer science a science? This question has been asked since the inception of the field in the 1940s. Computer Science is certainly a science in the sense of a mature body of knowledge, including systematic method and practice. Many in the field have argued that the body of knowledge argument is sufficient. To provide a more substantive argument in favor of a science interpretation, other researchers have suggested that computer science is an artificial, experimental science not unlike economics. To build from, and complement prior views, we claim that computing is an empirical science, similar to that of physics or biology. Demonstrating this claim requires broadening the foundations of computing to include analog systems, and employing modeling and simulation as a fundamental approach toward observing computing in natural and artificial contexts. An example model of mixed discrete-event/continuous information is presented in support of this claim.