Is Computing an Experimental Science?
Robin Milner · Journal of Information Technology · 1987
We are beginning an ambitious programme of research into the Foundations of Computer Science. This isn’t to say that we are beginning to study the theory of computation; this has been going on fruitfully for many years. Nevertheless the particular programme which we have put forward is a new kind of exercise. What makes it new is a central commitment to a double thesis: that the design of computing systems can only properly succeed if it is well grounded in theory, and that the important concepts in a theory can only emerge through protracted exposure to application.