Wolfram's computational approach to analysis has some definite advantages over more conventional axiomatic methods, and has led to some powerful intuitions. Very interesting stuff. Wolfram's computational approach to analysis has some definite advantages over more conventional axiomatic methods, and has led to some powerful intuitions.

He bought his own Cray computer to play with. Wolfram unveils a new way of thinking about how the world works. Readers will find themselves swept away by the elegant simplicity of Wolfram's ideas and the accidental artistry of the cellular automaton models.

An excruciatingly long book, this one. Wonderfully printed, easy to read, marvelous to look at, pretentious piece of quack. There are endless permutations of such rules. Cellular automata are everywhere.

For example, a rule might specify that we place a new piece on a blank grid square if there are two pieces on neighbouring squares, or remove one if it has more than four neighbours.

It is like saying that because ants have evolved a complex social structure, they must have discovered socialism.

Similar claims occur throughout the book, starting with the assertion that it contains not just a contribution to current science, or even a new branch of science, but a new kind of science altogether (which we learn on page 856 "will require an investment of … His arrogance is annoying, but I have worked for many scientists who have the same sense of self-importance. I bought this book as the "bible of cellular automata" and found much more to ponder than complexity in algorithmic art.

And the results look very promising. Abstract: This is a critical review of the book 'A New Kind of Science' by Stephen Wolfram. -ESSAY: Blinded by Science: Explaining the media's obsession with Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. Is it possible to become intoxicated or seduced by one's own ideas? His strategy is to find a CA that looks suggestive of a particular phenomenon, and then to admit a 'suspicion' that real life works this way too. I desperately wanted to love this book, and I'm glad I slogged through it; however, there didn't appear to be much here that hadn't been articulated better elsewhere, earlier, and with arguably more grounding. There is a measure of jealousy in some of the comments by his peers, since he has made a comfortable income from Mathematica. In some ways it changed my concept of how the world works.

I read this book years ago and gave it a five remembering how beautiful the ideas were. The exiting book "A New Kind of Science"is written by the worldly known scientist Stephen Wolfram. Stephen Wolfram demonstrates both the pros and the cons of working outside the scientific system in his theory of everything, A New Kind of Science. This is what happens when you tell an incurious child that they're really smart and never force them to interact with people brighter or more knowledgeable than them. Welcome back. There's something great about a paperback book: They're perfect book club choices, you can throw them in your bag and go, and they've been out in... Physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, whose Mathematica computer language launched a multimillion-dollar company, now sets his sights on a more daunting goal: understanding the universe. On the question of how living organisms are moulded, the existing theory - natural selection - is too well known to be spirited away like this. The idea of cellular automata is interesting, so I programmed some of his examples for fun. I think Wolfram by striking out on his sequestered research into his explorations of cellular automata did not get enough feedback into his own ideas and was seduced by them and having been seduced shared them in a seductive way to people who were also hypnotized by his automata.

All his arguments proceed by analogy. There is a measure of jealousy in some of the comments by his peers, since he has made a comfortable income from Mathematica. The writing style can be tedious (often repetitive), not so much because it may be technical in nature. Wolfram's pivotal discovery was that some CA produce patterns that are not just complex but random.

But in some ways it reminded me of Fuller's Synergetics. Wolfram is that rare thing, an independent scientist, and since the early Nineties he has been reclusive, working through the nights on his 'new kind of science'. Whether or not Wolfram's revolution ultimately gives us the keys to the universe, his new science is absolutely awe-inspiring. The disadvantage is that the devil is often in those details: it is easier to pull the wool over a lay reader's eyes. -INTERVIEW: Is this man bigger than Newton and Darwin? The patterns generated by cellular automata were compelling.