In this blog post, we will compare the unique development of computer science with the theory of scientific revolutions by Kuhn and Popper.

 

Introduction

Computer science is a discipline that has experienced rapid changes and development in its short history. Computer science has achieved rapid development in various areas in a short period of time, and the pace of development continues to this day. For example, the Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz in 2005 boasts 6,505 times faster performance than the VAX-11/780 in 1978. Recently, as the clock speed of CPUs reached its limit, the paradigm has shifted to multicore processors. In addition, computer science is undergoing continuous change as various technologies are incorporated, and the impact of these changes on the lives of modern people is very significant.
In the 1940s, computers were huge machines that filled an entire room, but now, with the spread of smartphones, the era of “one computer per person” has arrived, and we can do many things with them. Computer science, unlike other scientific disciplines, has developed through performance improvements and paradigm shifts, which is a remarkable phenomenon from a philosophical perspective of scientific revolutions. This article will examine the principles and directions of the development of computer science based on the theory of scientific revolutions.

 

Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper’s Arguments on the Scientific Revolution

The scientific revolution has a great impact not only on academia but also on society as a whole. Thomas Kuhn describes the scientific revolution as a “paradigm shift,” and a paradigm is a scientific achievement that can pose important questions to researchers. According to Kuhn, while a paradigm is working effectively, existing theories are expanded and clarified, and scientists conduct normal science through this. However, when an existing paradigm cannot sufficiently explain natural phenomena, a new paradigm is proposed, and a scientific revolution occurs.
Karl Popper argues that science should progress through refutation, not through the verification of hypotheses. He believed that scientific discoveries are not definitive and that no hypothesis can be 100% certain. Popper argued that scientific truth must be explored through constant doubt and criticism, and that this process is the essence of scientific development. Popper’s philosophy is known as falsificationism.

 

Principles of the development of computer science from the perspective of the scientific revolution

Computer science is a discipline that primarily aims to improve performance. New methodologies are constantly being proposed to maximize performance at various levels, including hardware devices, operating systems, and application software. In this process, correctness is as important as performance. In computer science, correctness is an important criterion for determining whether a system is working correctly, and there is a philosophy that performance should not deviate from correctness, no matter how high it is.
Unlike other sciences, computer science presents new paradigms very quickly and verifies them quickly. For example, sequential execution of CPU instructions was guaranteed to be correct, but it was slow, so new methodologies such as pipeline execution and non-sequential execution were proposed. These methodologies aim to improve performance, but solutions to ensure correctness must also be presented in the process.

 

Modern advancements in computer science: The rise of artificial intelligence and quantum computing

Another important development in modern computer science is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). In recent years, AI has emerged as a technology that enables complex tasks such as autonomous driving, natural language processing, and image recognition from simple data processing. This is not only improving the performance of computer science, but also fundamentally changing the way human-machine interaction works. In particular, the development of deep learning technology is providing the ability to quickly process large amounts of data and identify complex patterns within it, thereby solving problems that are difficult for humans to solve.
In addition, quantum computing is presenting a new paradigm that goes beyond the existing binary logic-based computing method. Quantum computers have the potential to quickly process complex problems that conventional computers cannot solve, and are expected to bring about innovation in various fields such as cryptography, chemical simulations, and optimization problems. These technologies are currently driving the development of computer science and are attracting attention as important factors that will lead to a paradigm shift in the future.

 

Differences between the scientific revolution and computer science

The direction of development of computer science is similar to the existing scientific revolution theory, but there are also differences. In Kuhn’s scientific revolutions, paradigm shifts are mainly caused by the limitations of existing theories and the emergence of new theories to replace them. In computer science, on the other hand, existing paradigms are often maintained while improving performance or suggesting new directions. Computer science is a discipline in which new methodologies quickly emerge as needed, rather than developing based on past achievements, so it is difficult to explain its development process using the framework of traditional scientific revolutions.
Computer science is evolving while balancing the constant improvement of performance and correctness. In addition, the advent of the mobile environment and the rise of new paradigms such as artificial intelligence show that computer science is a discipline that is developing simultaneously in various directions. In this respect, computer science needs a more flexible scientific revolution theory.

 

Conclusion

Computer science is a discipline that has undergone rapid changes in a very short period of time, and its development cannot be fully explained by the framework of conventional scientific revolutions. Computer science, which is constantly improving performance and finding the right balance between correctness and introducing new paradigms, is one of the main examples of the scientific revolution theory, and its potential for development is endless.