Automation List:

Have you read, or at least reviewed, the latest best-seller - a new telephone-book sized volume "A New Kind of Science"? This was the result of 10 years of dedication by Stephen Wolfram, famed founder of Mathematica. His personal, primary quest: a new level of simplicity through the science of cellular automata.

Wolfram considers that everything in the universe was generated by simple rules. He demonstrates rules that produce on a computer the same results as pigmentation patterns on jaguars and seashells, the growth of leaves, the behavior of financial markets.

This may be the catalyst that will finally bring the sciences of Chaos and Complexity to the forefront of the new century.

I feel intuitively that this approach is right.
The only thing is - did Wolfram "discover" it?

Wolfram's book - A New Kind of Science :
"http://www.wolframscience.com/":http://www.wolframscience.com/

Stephen Wolfram's website:
"http://www.stephenwolfram.com/":http://www.stephenwolfram.com/

You'll find my latest article on Wolfram's book
on the web at:
"http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/patterns.html":http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/patterns.html

Comments and feedback will be appreciated.

Cheers:
jim
----------/
Jim Pinto
email : [email protected]
web: www.JimPinto.com
San Diego, CA., USA
----------/

 

A review of the book: "www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0464.html":http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0464.html

Regards,
Phil Covington

 

Similar to:
"www.digitalphilosophy.org":http://www.digitalphilosophy.org

Regards,
Phil Covington
http://www.vhmiautomation.com

 

Jim Pinto:
> Have you read, or at least reviewed, the latest best-seller - a new
> telephone-book sized volume "A New Kind of Science"?

No, but from what I've heard of it:

> This was the result of 10 years of dedication by Stephen Wolfram,
> famed founder of Mathematica. His personal, primary quest: a new level
> of simplicity through the science of cellular automata.

Obviously, cellular automata are Turing-equivalent, so they can do anything that computers can do. That doesn't mean that it's a good idea to use them for anything and everything. No doubt they're useful for some problems, but that's kind-of a trivial statement to make.

They're also no more powerful than formulae.

> Wolfram considers that everything in the universe was generated by
> simple rules.

Which scientists - real scientists - are still searching for. They call it the `Grand Unified Theory', and it's a kind of holy grail in physics.

The idea that physicists have been making formulae more and more complex is simply ignorant: the basic formulae have generally stayed around the same level of complexity. It's just that different formulae are now considered basic, so the previously-basic ones become harder (as they are now derived from multiple levels of simpler formulae).

> The only thing is - did Wolfram "discover" it?

No. Anyone with Conway's Game of Life on their computer and a quiet weekend has probably toyed with these ideas.

> http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/patterns.html

You probably have about the right of it. Certainly doesn't make me want to read the book, except perhaps with a red pen in hand. I get the
impression the word `crank' should be applied not so much to the computation as to the author.

Umm, to bring it on topic, do people want the Game of Life as a module for the MatPLC? Some weekend when I'm bored I could put it in...

Jiri
--
Jiri Baum <jiri @baum.com.au> http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
MAT LinuxPLC project --- http://mat.sf.net --- Machine Automation Tools

 

You may also be interested in a very brief review of Wolfram's new book by a long-time expert and promoter of practical applications of
cellular automata by Dick Morley at:

"www.jimpinto.com/enews/june26-2002.html":http://www.jimpinto.com/enews/june26-2002.html

Regards,
Ralph Mackiewicz
SISCO, Inc.