A New Kind of Science

Rating:
Summary: who owes an apology?
Review: I heartily agree with the last author about an apology. However, one should note that most of the present-day "experts in the field" and, in particular, those in biology are so narrow-minded and obsessional, that even such an individual as author of this book can incite a certain amount of interest among the general reader.

Therefore, my suggestion is that the scientific community owes a GREAT apology to the common readers for not having produced any real genius in last 50 years. Not to mention current publishing and funding policies inside that scientific community that make almost impossible any major advancement in science.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: Well, I liked it anyway.
Even though it did give the UPS man a hernia.

Rating:
Summary: hacks will doubt
Review: Those with the most to loose will be most threatened by what Wolfram has to say -- traditional scientists. In typical academic fashion they focus on meaningless minutiae and miss the larger point. Modern science does not address issues of complexity in natural systems nor does it acknowledge the limitations of traditional mathematical approaches. Obviously the man is human -- self-congratulatory and egocentric -- but he is clearly gifted and brilliant (much to the consternation of his mediocre-by-comparison, intellectual elitist critics, no doubt) and presents a strong critique of modern day science as well as some intriguing new discoveries about how complexity can arise given simple starting conditions. Failing to take away these big-picture points from this work points to other motives operating in the minds of Wolfram's peers -- petty jealousy and fear that one has dedicated a career to being wrong.

Rating:
Summary: A New kind of Prophet
Review: In my glorious reading of The New Kind of Science , I discovered a most fundamental discovery that will enlighten the world for eternity. This discovery can be summarized in my most important Equivalence Principle; Tipler is equivalent to John the Baptist, Wolfram is equivalent to Jesus Chris, and (here is where I get confused) either Mathematica is the Holy Sprit and the Book is the Omega Point or is it Mathematica the Omega Point and the Book is the Holly Sprit?
The problem is either way, we are stuck with a great expense...

Rating:
Summary: The "I"s have it
Review: The first three paragraphs of the prelude contain 8 sentences with 18 repeats of the first person pronoun. The real change revolutionizing science is the increasing need for cooperation and collaboration especially in the study of complex phenomena, a revolution to which Wolfrum by constitution and now proclamation will not contribute. The results of these collaborative efforts are a growing awareness of the true complexities of the natural world. As one of my colleagues is fond of saying, "Mother nature always bats last". In the case of Wolfrum, it's clearly Casey at the bat, and it's probably best to avoid Mudville all together.

Rating:
Summary: Does it advance our understanding or not?
Review: Yes, does it advance our understanding or not? That is the only thing of importance. All these comments on Wolfram's pretentiousness could not be of less significance. I care not one whit about whose ego is being indulge and nor questions about whose getting credit for what.
I've always been suspicious of the extremely complex mathematical explaintions of natural processes. Anyway we seem to have hit a wall with such explainations. Something is wrong with it. I think that is intuitive to many people.
Nature is not trying to be tricky. Nature is always ruthlessly efficient, it always takes the simplest way.
I agree with Wolfram, there has got to be simple rules applied to a basically simple underlying structure. The speed of which this process is carried out is what blinds us to it. The processing power of the modern computer has now given us eyes.
Wolfram mentions many times that it took years for his new ideas to become "intuitive". But I found it all quite intuitively agreeable right off the bat. My intuition is telling me yes, he's onto something here. It does make sense.
I expect exciting things to happen because of this book!

Rating:
Summary: Well done, but fails to take on "Anthropic Coincidences"
Review: The book is well written and a good read. But Mr. Wolfram fails to take on the "Anthropic Coincidences," to explain how his "few lines of code" has resulted in a universe so finely balanced to allow our human lives, a planet so well positioned before a suitable sun (and not just any planet and sun, but OUR planet and sun), a world with the proper chemical processes and happenstance development of organic life forms, perfect twists and turns of biological evolution to result in our species and, finally, to have spewed out you and me. Further, it is a world that, not only was balanced to allow the possibility of you and me having been born, but which actually did result in you and me having been born (an even more incredible long shot). A friend who also read the book stated:

> You and I are not just "1 in a million." I can understand "1 in a million." We are "1 in X" (X representing every potential combination of events possible in a universe of events, throughout all time.) That is a bit of a different game.

The great improbability of our existence in a universe of chance developments indicates to many that the processes have been, far from random, the playing out of an intrinsic, underlying order that was bound into (or, at least, substantially lowered the odds for) our appearance in existence. In other words, we should not have appeared in the casino of the universe unless the dice were somehow loaded (or unless we were the dice!).

Wolfram's "single simple algorithm that, in effect, generates all the rules of physics and everything else" fails to solve the problem, unless we assume that the conditions for our being were somehow pre-ordained in the algorithm itself (or that, no matter how the algorithm played out, the circumstances for our existence were of a low order of probability).

If it wasn't for the lunatic Creationists and their ilk attempting to "prove God" thereby, the "Anthropic Coincidences" would be more widely discussed as a challenge to our view of a "random" universe, and as evidence of a deep, fundamental inter-connection between our being and the world. They will be more widely discussed in the coming years, In all likelihood, we find ourselves alive and conscious in these bodies, right here and now, for the same reason that a salmon swims upstream, the same stream, year in and year out - Not by chance, but because of an underlying force and process of nature which makes the particular event happen out a a universe of potential events.

Rating:
Summary: Rule 42
Review: Gregory Good, my fellow Canucklehead from Vancouver ;-) beat me to it. Rule 42, that's what I want, dagnabit.

And then I want a sequel that tells me what the question was.

I was playing "Life" and studying cellular automata when Wolfram was still called tungsten.

Rating:
Summary: Non-existent science; Good marketing
Review: Stephen Wolfram is a marketing genius, and I am going to assign this book to my marketing classes to study.

Each page of the book (or almost all of them) succeeds in doing the following:

1.) [Convincing] people into thinking Mathematica is the best way to program cellular automata. (guaranteed to boost sales over the long run and create new markets for his proprietary computer program.)

2.) Showing that you don't need any good ideas, or new ideas to write a best selling science book, or to claim to inaugurate a scientific field. This illustrates the basic point in business that the actual quality of what you sell is completely unimportant if you can get people to believe in the product. The depth and credulity of the technical market has been underappreciated in my opinion.

3.) Demonstrating that the size of the book can help sell more copies (despite the fact that every page says more or less the same thing).

4.) Illustrating how if you believe you are a scientific genius and argue strongly that you are, you can fool at least half the people, and then use this status for profit.

The book also takes a revolutionary approach to intellectual property protection. The copyright notice says, in effect, that everything you do on your computer based on the programs in the book, belongs to Stephen Wolfram. (This, despite the fact that so much of the book is taken from others without proper attribution.) If commercial applications based on this book are ever developed, we will have to see whether Wolfram will be able to appropriate them for himself. As it stands, anyone considering doing anything with cellular automata after reading this book in whole or in part, would be well-advised to study the copyright notice with their attorney.

Rating:
Summary: sunyatasystems.com
Review: We used a computational approach based on similar technology to successfully design and implement a compound in under two months. To our knowledge this has not been accomplished before using these methods. Wolfram has done a great job of explaining the essentials of a new kind of science.