Informatics is a

natural science

Frank van HarmelenDept. of “Computer Science”

VU University A’damCreative Commons License: allowed to share & remix,but must attribute & non-commercial

Health Warning:

This is going to be a pretentious talk

Philosophical confessioncoming up:

What I believe about scientific knowledge

Computer “Science” ?

"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes”

-- Edsger W. Dijkstra

just like laws aboutthe physical universe?

alchemy

Some examples of“laws” from the information universe

(and sometimes: from the SIKS part of that universe)

Zipf’s law

USE

USE

RE-USE

U = 1-R

Some proposed laws from the SIKS part

of the Information Universe

Factual knowledgeis a graph

Terminological knowledgeis a hierarchy

|Terminology| << |Facts|

Dataset Schemaclosure

Full closure

Ratio

Linked Life Data 332sec 1h5min 10FactForge 89sec 2h45min 100

The role of the human observer?

Many more laws, about:• Abstraction, Information Hiding, Layering• Simulation, Universality, Virtualisation• Tractability, Computability

Are these the only examples?

Is this a weird position?

"Informatics is the study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions

of natural and engineered computational systems."

Three of the truly fundamental questions of Science are: "What is matter?", "What is life?" and "What is mind?".

Is this even controversial?

"Underlying our approach to this subject is our conviction that computer science is not a science”

Mathematics provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of "what is."

Computation provides a framework for dealing preciselywith notions of "how to"

Is this new?

Bill Rapaport’s page with a map of 45(!) years of debate

Is this even important?It changes our “ontology” of CS!

• A computer is a result

• A programming language is a result

• An algorithm is a result

• A computer is a result A computer is an experimental instrument

• A programming language is a resultA programming language is an experiment

• An algorithm is a resultAn algorithms is an observation

Is this even important?

• It changes how PC’s and editorial boards think• It changes how you teach your courses• It changes how you train your PhD’s• It changes how you judge a PhD thesis• It changes how other fields perceive “CS”• It changes how the general public perceive “CS”

Theory?What theory?