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A New Kind of Science
| Our Price |
$ 35.06
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| Retail Value |
$ 44.95 |
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$ 9.89 (22%) |
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| Item Number |
465764 |
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Item Description...
Overview
Challenging the traditional mathematical model of scientific description, a scientist proposes a new dynamic computational approach that utilizes simple codes to generate patterns of ultimate complexity. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 1197
Dimensions: Length: 2.5" Width: 8.25" Height: 9.75"
Weight: 5.45 lbs.
Binding Hardcover
ISBN 1579550088
EAN 9781579550080
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Availability 36 units.
Availability accurate as of May 27, 2012 07:46.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | A mixed bag Dec 18, 2008 |
| Not bad, but not all that it is made up to be. For example, the chapter on visual processing is devoid of all the knowledge that we have on the topic. Would have been well advised to have some co-authors. | | |  | Not a good book Oct 7, 2008 |
It took 1000 pages to express a simple idea, that simple non-linear structures can create complex structures. Nice illustrations, but nothing novel. I like economy in writing. The author spreads too much. The book doesn't present anything new. It is better if you just read books on chaos and fractals line Fractals Everywhere or Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science.
This book was another firework in the star system of science | | |  | A New Kind of Computer Art?... but not reality, not Science Sep 6, 2008 |
1) Sept. 2008: A very large book of wonderful mathematically generated complexity reduced to simplicity, such as "cellular automata". If I were to reduce it down to a singular cellular automaton, I would call it "A New Kind of Computer Art", and watch the permutations in a new kind of life-science game evolve, like "The Game of Life".
But is it truly a "new kind of science"? I would let the next reader decide. But is it Art? Or is it Mathematical Art? That I will decided when I finish the other half of this delightful magical mathematical voodo computer art book. Wish you included more color.
Nice job Wolfram! Much fun read too. :) But...
2) Nov. 2008: I very much enjoyed the first half of New Kind of Science, especially about the cellular automata. I think Stephen Wolfram is brilliant. But he falls short in the second half when he applies these principles to biology. It may work for crystalline structures, but not biology. The reason is that organisms have a larger environment, one NOT defined by cellular automata dynamics, that must defer to what reality presents for the organism's survival. That greater reality is what will shape success or failure in any derived products, whether stronger and longer limbs, or colors, or teeth. It is that which spells success or failure, not the randomness of what simple mutations from cellular automata will generate. I think in this way, Wolfram falls in love with his story, but is not being realistic as to what in the end defines survival of species. Nice story, great idea, but it is lacking depth of reality, which makes it too one sided to become science. Fiction perhaps, or art, but not science.
Regardless, it is a challenging idea which if incorporated into other 'fractal' like ideas does offer modeling of real events at some statistical level of accuracy. In that respect, Wolfram's idea, though not science, is valuable. | | | | Big, Beautiful and Formidable May 28, 2008 |
| I received A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram in July 2002. It sits on a shelf in a place of honor. Occasionally, I take it down and open it as one would an expensive Bible. Someday, I'll really study it. Until then I love its feel, its heft, its marvelous and painstaking creation. It promises much--almost like the Bible promising eternal life. I bought it again as a gift for a young man just graduating from the University of Memphis in Computer Science. He's already deep into its pages. I envy him in a way. Perhaps he'll explain it to me. Not that I need any explanation. With faith I already know it is worthy of eternal life on my top shelf. | | |  | An Extraordinary Compendium of Research Notes Apr 20, 2008 |
| So much has been written, there is little left to add, nevertheless... Wolfram set out to find the underlying set of axioms that define all "Type 4" sets of axioms, the sets that give rise to complexity. Finding that defining set of axioms, if that's even possible, would have been an extraordinary accomplishment, but he could not crack the code. The fact that he was unable to make any progress at all is perhaps revealing about the nature of such sets of axioms. All he was left to do was to publish his research notes. He may have credited himself with more than he accomplished, but he has compiled an extraordinary compendium of notes. | | | Write your own review about A New Kind of Science
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