Science And Math Was: Python's Lisp heritage

[Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters]

|> mathematics, including the study of algorithms, is a natural science.

Tim Daneliuk <tundra at tundraware.com> wrote previously:
|I disagree strongly...  All of mathematics is a formal construct of the
|human mind created with the intent of removing ambiguity and enhancing
|our ability to describe what we *think* and what we *observe*.

To my mind, Daneliuk present here the strongest argument that
mathematics (and therefore CS) *IS* indeed a science.

The wrinkle I would add to it is in describing exactly *which* science
mathematics is.  Rather than being something close to Physics, and
describing the behavior of the (large-scale) physical universe, I see
Mathematics as a special branch of Psychology.  Mathematics describes
the laws of thought, but at a level of abstraction that applies to any
thinking being.  If we find martians, or teach dolphins, or invent
computers sophisticated enough to "think", their thought patterns will
be constrained by the rules of Mathematics--even though they quite
likely will not be characterized by uniquely human Psychological
features like, say Oedipal complexes, structured 3-scale memory,
prototype-centered reasoning, and so on.

Alex may disagree with me here, but I think my opinion here is quite
close to the middle Wittgenstein, or the _Philosohy of Mathematics_ and
the _Blue and Brown Books_.  It is also very close to some of Godel's
remarks, in his philosophical moods.

Yours, Lulu...

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