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A New Kind of Science

Author: Stephen Wolfram
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

12 reviews
Sales Rank: 89614

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.6
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 8.1 x 2.6

ISBN: 1579550088
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN: 9781579550080
ASIN: 1579550088

Publication Date: May 2002
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Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Science Complexity /Wolfram
•	Hardcover - A New Kind of Science

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
Physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, sets his sights on a daunting goal: understanding the universe. A New Kind of Science is a gorgeous, 1,280-page tome more than a decade in the making. With patience, insight, and self-confidence to spare, Wolfram outlines a fundamental new way of modelling complex systems.

On the frontier of complexity science since he was a boy, Wolfram is a champion of cellular automata--256 "programs" governed by simple non-mathematical rules. He points out that even the most complex equations fail to accurately model biological systems, but the simplest cellular automata can produce results straight out of nature--tree branches, stream eddies, and leopard spots, for instance. The graphics in A New Kind of Science show striking resemblance to the patterns we see in nature every day.

Wolfram wrote the book in a distinct style meant to make it easy to read, even for non-techies; a basic familiarity with logic is helpful but not essential. Readers will find themselves swept away by the elegant simplicity of Wolfram's ideas and the accidental artistry of the cellular automaton models. Whether or not Wolfram's revolution ultimately gives us the keys to the universe, his new science is absolutely awe-inspiring. --Therese Littleton

Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Not very new, not very interesting May 6, 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating ideas October 19, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but ultimately flawed February 1, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

2 out of 5 stars

Pretty pictures, dull prose February 26, 2005
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

3 out of 5 stars The vanity outweighs the science December 2, 2004
25 out of 25 found this review helpful

There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.