Question

Importance of modern science and philosophy by determining their application to and limitation on computer science.

Give 5 instances.

Answer 1

The philosophy of science is concerned with all the assumptions, foundations, methods, implications of science, and with the use and merit of science. This discipline sometimes overlaps metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology, viz., when it explores whether scientific results comprise a study of truth.

The philosophy of computer science is concerned with those ontological, methodological, and ethical issues that arise from within the academic discipline of computer science as well as from the practice of software development. Thus, the philosophy of computer science shares the same philosophical goals as the philosophy of mathematics and the many subfields of the philosophy of science, such as the philosophy of biology or the philosophy of the social sciences. The philosophy of computer science also considers the analysis of computational artifacts, that is, human-made computing systems, and it focuses on methods involved in the design, specification, programming, verification, implementation, and testing of those systems. The abstract nature of computer programs and the resulting complexity of implemented artifacts, coupled with the technological ambitions of computer science, ensures that many of the conceptual questions of the philosophy of computer science have analogs in the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of empirical sciences, and the philosophy of technology. Other issues characterize the philosophy of computer science only. We shall concentrate on three tightly related groups of topics that form the spine of the subject.

Capabilities of a computer system are the qualities of the computer that put it in a positive light and make the user experience more efficient.

Speed

Speed means the duration a computer system requires fulfilling a task or completing an activity. It is well-known that computers need very little time than humans in completing a task. Generally, humans take into account a second or minute as a unit of time.

Nevertheless, computer systems have such fast operation capacity that the unit of time is in fractions of a second. Today, computers are capable of doing 100 million calculations per second and that is why the industry has developed Million Instructions per Second (MIPS) as the criterion to classify different computers according to speed.

Accuracy

Accuracy means the level of precision with which calculations are made and tasks are performed. One may invest years of his life in detecting errors in computer calculations or updating a wrong record. A large part of mistakes in Computer Based Information System(CBIS) occurs due to bad programming, erroneous data, and deviation from rules. Humans cause these mistakes.

Errors attributable to hardware are generally distinguished and corrected by the computer system itself. Computers rarely commit errors and do all types of tasks precisely.

Reliability

Reliability is the quality due to which the user can stay dependable on the computer. Computers systems are well-adjusted to do repetitive tasks. They never get tired, bored or fatigued. Hence, they are a lot reliable than humans. Still, there can be failures of a computer system due to internal and external reasons.

Any failure of the computer in a highly automated industry is disastrous. Hence, the industry in such situations has a backup facility to take over tasks without losing much of the time.

Adaptability

The adaptability of a computer system means the quality of it to complete a different type of task: simple as well as complex. Computers are normally versatile unless designed for a specific operation. Overall, a daily purpose computer is used in any area of application: business, industry, scientific, statistical, technological and so on

A general-purpose computer, when introduced in a company, can replace the jobs of multiple specialists due to its flexibility. A computer system can replace the functions of all these specialists because of being very versatile.

Storage

Storage is the ability of the computer to store data in itself for accessing it again in the future. Nowadays, apart from having instantaneous access to data, computers have a huge ability to store data in a little physical space.

A general computer system has a capacity of storing and providing online millions of characters and thousands of pictures. It is obvious from the above discussion that computer capabilities outperform human capabilities. Therefore, a computer, when used rightfully, will tenfold the effectiveness of an organization.

Limitations of Computer Systems

Limitations are the drawbacks of the computer system in which humans outperform them.

Lack of common-sense

This is one of the major limitations of computer systems. No matter how efficient, fast, and reliable computer systems might be but yet do not have any common sense because no full-proof algorithm has been designed to program logic into them. As computers function based on the stored program (s), they simply lack common sense.

Zero IQ

Another of the limitations of computer systems is that they have zero Intelligence Quotient (IQ). They are unable to see and think the actions to perform in a particular situation unless that situation is already programmed into them. Computers are programmable to complete each and every task, however small it may be.

Lack of Decision-making

Decision-making is a complicated process involving information, knowledge, intelligence, wisdom, and the ability to judge. The computer system does not have the ability to make decisions on their own because they do not possess all the essentials of decision-making.

They can be programmed to take such decisions, which are purely procedure-oriented. If a computer has not been programmed for a particular decision situation, it will not make a decision due to a lack of wisdom and evaluation faculties. Human beings, on the other hand, possess this great power of decision-making.