Dear All, Has anyone here read a new kind of science? Any thoughts on it? Jesse

Is that a book title, or are you just asking about any new and different types of scientific theory, methods, results or paradigms?

Or maybe you mean stuff like L. Ron Hubbard''s profound insights, or perhaps Mr. Nye or string will be more to your liking?

I meant the book. A New Kind of Science, by Wolfham(sp?).

Got it, read about 1/3 of the way through and gave up. Esentially he has one idea, but because it''s not a very good idea he cannot tie up the science convincingly and concisely so just goes on a lot longer than is polite. Avoid it unless the field (celular automata and chaos) is of particular interest.

When I saw the size of the book I expected a lot more information in it. A "New" Kind of Science? What does that mean? Chaos has been around for a while, and a book on cellular automata that size should be a reference, not a best-seller wannabe.

Chaos is new in the scope of things. Compared to more established fields such as more conventional physics, it is a newcomer, since it''s only been around since really the 1970s (though some initial work on it occurred in the ''60s).

The Artist Formerly Known as CmndrM

http://chaos.webhop.org

Read the reviews on amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1579550088/qid=1058983638/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-5365485-1795324?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I have read the reviews, and even some of the book, I just wanted to talk about it with someone :-)(I don''t live near any math/science geeks). Hence the question...

Have you checked Kurweil''s review? It''s pretty long. And if you want to discuss it, I think there was a comment section there.

Cédric

The book about the universe being explained as a giant cellular automata? I thought it was very interesting, but I think Wolfham went a little bit too far in the way he did it.

[edited by - Platinum314 on July 24, 2003 11:08:54 PM]