A Collection of Reviews of ANKOS
and Links to Related Work
Below you will find links to more reviews than you will care to read of Stephen Wolfram's book A New Kind of Science and links to some related articles.
SOME HISTORY AND RELATED LINKS.
Who first had the idea that the universe is a cellular automaton? Konrad Zuse?
Edward Fredkin? Certainly not Stephen Wolfram.
After reading the book you may appreciate some related HUMOR.
Skeptics on Wolfram at Caltech This is a usenet posting on talk.orgins of a story to appear in e-Skeptic. It includes summaries of a talk by Wolfram at Caltech and Q&A after the talk by David Naiditch and Michael Gilmore's.
You may also want to know more about the LEGAL ACTION taken by Wolfram regarding the proof by Matthew Cook of the universality of the rule 110 cellular automaton.
The Reviews
The reviews are in neither chronological nor alphabetical order.
However, you may use your browser's Find mechanism to locate reviews by
author or publication on this page. If you know of any substantive reviews that
are not on this list please let me know. W. Edwin Clark eclark@math.usf.edu
Review by Yves Pomeau taken from MathSciNet ( MR1920418 (2003i:37002))
A Note on Minimal
Boolean Formula Size of One-Dimensional Cellular Automata by Evangelos Georgiadis (Journal of Cellular
Automata, Volume 4, Number 2, 2007 ) This paper disproves 44 claims in ANKOS.
A Rare Blend
of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity by Cosma Shalizi
Comments
on a review of NKS Unlike most of the reviews below this is a defense
of the book written by
Kovas
Boguta, Wolfram Science Group, in the NKS
Forum .
Review of A New Kind of Science
by Rudy Rucker,
American Mathematical Monthly, November 2002, 851-861.
(This will be available also at the MAA Book Reviews Site
eventually.)
In Search of a
Scientific Revolution
Controversial genius
Stephen Wolfram presses onward
by Peter Weiss Science News Online,
Aug.Ý16,Ý2003.
A Thirty-five Year Old
Kind of Science
by Juergen Schmidhuber, based
on a letter to Intl. Journal of High-Energy Physics, vol 43:5, June 2003.
A Mathematician
Looks at Wolfram's New Kind of Science
by Lawrence Gray, Notices of the American Mathematical Society,
February 2003.
A
Reclusive Kind of Science
by David H. Bailey, to appear in Computing in Science and Engineering.
Critical Review
of "A New Kind of Science" and Notes on "A New Kind of
Science"
by David Drysdale
The
World According to Wolfram
by Brian Hayes , American
Scientist, July-August, 2002
Book Review: 'A New Kind of Science' (original PDF) (latest version PS)
by Scott Aaronson to appear
in Quantum Information and Computation, September, 2002.
Book
Review: "A New Kind of Science"
by Ray Girvan, Scientific
Computing World, August 2002.
A New Kind of Science?
by Leo P. Kadanoff
, arXiv.org e-Print archive,
Essentially the same review appears In PhysicsToday.org
A revolution or self-indulgent hype-The Daily Telegraph May 2002 : comments by Michael Berry, John Ellis and David Deutsch
A New Kind of Science, by
Stephen Wolfram
by Henry Cohn, The
Mathematical Association of America Online book review column
Review of
Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science,
by John Kadvany, Foundations of Mathematics Mailing List,
Reflections
on Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"
by Ray
Kurzweil, KurzweilAI.net
Stephen
Wolfram's A New Kind of Science -- A Complexity Scientist's Reaction
by Ben Goertzel, Dynamical Psychology,
2002
Haven't
I seen that pattern before...? (trial subscription needed to view)
by Philip Anderson, The Times Higher Education Supplement,
Review
of A New Kind of Science (PDF)
by Steven G. Krantz, Bulletin of the American
Mathematical Society, Vol. 40, Number 1, 2003.
Is
the Universe a Universal Computer
by Melanie Mitchell, Science
Magazine,
Review of A New Kind of
Science (postscript file)
by Hassan Masum ACM SIGACT NEWS, December 2002.
Is the Universe a Computer?
by Steven Weinberg, The
Blinded by Science Explaining
the media's obsession with Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science.
By Jordan Ellenberg, SlateTuesday,
July 2, 2002
Life,
the Universe and a Game of Chequers
By Philip Ball, The
Guardian,
The
Science of Everything
By Michael J. Behe, First Things 127 (November
2002)
A New Kind
of Science
By Tom Georgoulias, frontwheeldrive.com
How
the cheetah got his spots
By Chris
Lavers, The Guardian,
Interview
with Stephen Wolfram on A New Kind of Science (inReal Audio)
By Joe Palca
, NPR's Science
The
Book of Revelation (viewable via temporary free subscription)
By Robert Matthews, New Scientist,
July 6, 2002
What
kind of science is this? (apparently a subscription is required)
by Jim Giles, Nature 417, 216 - 218 (2002)
Science
is a computer program (apparently a subscription is required)
by John L. Casti, Nature 417, 381 - 382 (2002)
Not
Quite Copernicus
by John Derbyshire, National Review,
September 16, 2002
Copyright & Wolfram's A
New Kind of Science
by Kelly Truelove, O'Reilly Network Weblogs,
Stephen
Wolfram's Science
by Greg Egan, Greg
Egan's Home Page,
Cosmic
Computer -- New Philosophy to Explain the Universe
by Keay Davidson
Wolfram and logic/foundations of mathematics -- discussion on the mailing list FOM (Foundations of Mathematics) for more threads on this topic in FOM go to query = Wolfram
The Man Who Cracked The Code to Everything ... But first it cracked him. The inside story of how Stephen Wolfram went from boy genius to recluse to science renegade -- not a review, but a lengthy article on Wolfram and NKS by Steven Levy, Wired,June 10, 2002
God, Stephen
Wolfram, and Everything Else
by Michael S. Malone, Forbes ASAP, November 27, 2000 (Not a review, but
an account of a mysterious middle of the night meeting with Wolfram while he
was writing the book.)
Barnes & Noble's Customer Reviews
Slashdot Discussion of A New Kind of Science, May 21, 2002
The Big
Rewrite--Stephen Wolfram explains everything but the perfect cappuccino
by Margaret Werthheim, LA Weekly,
Stephen Wolfram's Simple Science by Michael Arndt, BusinessWeekOnline, May 17, 2002
Is
this man bigger than Newton and Darwin?
British physicist Stephen Wolfram tells Graham Farmelo why his new book,
already number one on Amazon.com, will revolutionise science, Connected
telegraph.co.uk, May 15, 2002.
A Man Who Would
Shake Up Science,
by Edward Rothstein, NYTimes, May 11, 2002
A
New Kind of Science: You Know That Space-Time Thing? Never Mind
by George Johnson, NY Times, June 9, 2002.
Did
This Man Just Rewrite Science?
by Dennis Overbye, NY Times, June 11, 2002
What's
So New in a Newfangled Science?
by George Johnson, NY Times, June 16, 2002
Questions
for Stephen Wolfram -- Complexity Made Simple
by Loch Adamson, NY Times, July 7, 2002
The science of everything: The emperor's new theory: A self-published book is being touted as the greatest step since Newton. Is it?, The Economist print edition, May 30th 2002
The
next Newton? Recluse, maverick physicist and Mathematica developer Stephen
Wolfram claims to have revolutionized science with his new, computer-based
theories.
by David Appell in Salon.com, May 15, 2002
A
challenging view of the universe--Scientist's tome draws notice, critics.
by Gareth Cook, The Boston Globe, June 19, 2002
The
Code of the Cosmos --A genius to some, a crackpot to others.
by Charles Piller, latimes.com, July 9, 2002