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What is theoretical computer science?

(cacm.acm.org)
166 points levlaz | 1 comments | 18 Oct 24 06:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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cjfd ◴[18 Oct 24 07:49 UTC] No.41877201[source]▶
He says he affiliates a bit with physics. That is what I studied when I was young. Yes, physics attempts to concern itself with the real world. For instance, nobody in their right mind would have anything to do with quantum mechanics if it wasn't how the real world operated. In that sense it seems to me that computer science is much closer to mathematics. The computer is an artificial system constructed to be relatively easy to reason about.
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eru ◴[18 Oct 24 07:54 UTC] No.41877233[source]▶
Some people really like the math of quantum mechanics for its own sake.

(See also how (much of) the math for General Relatively was developed without any application in mind.)

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1. cjfd ◴[18 Oct 24 09:13 UTC] No.41877624[source]▶
'Liking for its own sake' is not quite enough. The first question is whether quantum mechanics would have been invented in the first place if it wasn't for experiments that showed that it was necessary. The second question is even if it was invented, would anyone bother to study anything beyond a single particle wave function? A wave function by itself is not yet quantum mechanics, there is quite a bit of wave mechanics in classical physics. I am quite sure that if quantum mechanics was not necessary nobody would attempt to say anything about a quantum mechanical carbon atom. I.e., a quantum mechanical six body problem. Let alone quantum field theory.

General Relativity much more natural than quantum mechanics. It was mostly created from a theoretical motivation. People were dragged towards quantum mechanics kicking and screaming and it took about 30 years to develop.