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Offlinest1llnox
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Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"
    #18817002 - 09/08/13 10:04 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

Anyone read it? It's Wolfram's Magnum Opus. I just started it and have a quarter million words/1200 pages left according to the opening but if it delivers on what it claims (which I'm optimistic about, given my background and interest in computation), this really is "what's next" for how science is.

So yeah, anyone read it? Anyone wanna read it too? We could have like the Shroomery Book Club thread.

It's written to be accessible to non-scientists and scientists alike, so while it's rather long it shouldn't be mucked up with esoteric babble.


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OfflineShroomerited
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Re: Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" [Re: st1llnox]
    #18817125 - 09/08/13 10:48 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

I'm always weary of non technical scientific books/shows/etc. Sometimes the technical parts, the mathematics, are necessary to understand things correctly. Math isn't just a way of explaining the universe, but even more importantly a way of thinking about or understanding it.

Not saying all non technical books are bad, because there ARE good ones out there. They can just be misleading, even when written by experts in the field just because it's so hard to explain things without the math.


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Offlinest1llnox
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Re: Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" [Re: Shroomerited]
    #18819298 - 09/09/13 03:21 PM (10 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

Shroomerited said:
I'm always weary of non technical scientific books/shows/etc. Sometimes the technical parts, the mathematics, are necessary to understand things correctly. Math isn't just a way of explaining the universe, but even more importantly a way of thinking about or understanding it.

Not saying all non technical books are bad, because there ARE good ones out there. They can just be misleading, even when written by experts in the field just because it's so hard to explain things without the math.





This is a very valid point, and frankly it pisses me off sometimes when people espouse bold statements they read in pop sci books without understanding any of the actual underpinnings, but I would dare say that this book is one of the good "non-technical" ones, as you say.

Keep in mind also that even for brutally technical subjects, like theory of computation can be in this, more abstract and general premises about what it and else has to say about itself and the rest of science is naturally going to sound and be more "non-technical" sounding, simply because the potentially esoteric details are not relevant at that level.

I am hoping (and think he does; I'm just starting the book) that he gives more explanations and I do think this book is supposed to get a little technical. And I don't think much of the non-extremely-scientifically/mathematically-inclined population's ever going to read a 1200+ page book on how computation is its own science lol.

Jame's Gleik's "Chaos: Making a New Science" (which is the last book I read that's anywhere this important), is another good example of a very *accessible* book that still is solid in its science, BTW, and I think has a lot to say about what Wolfram's talking about in the beginning of ANKOS but we'll see.



I just found out too that they have a summer institute for people who've read this book and are perusing degrees that encourages developing ideas based on this.


--------------------
Back, bitches.
st1lln0x: so i'm on weed, temazepam, adderall, dexedrine, dxm, dph, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, tryptophan, GABA, and kratom
Cavemen_savemen: st1lln0x, do you feel like a robot yet?
st1lln0x: I feel like a fucking Gundam
Click to friend me on Steam for Counter-Strike
:crankey: IS LIFE SKULLFUCKING YOU!? HAVE SOME FREE MORALE! :awesomenod:
Click if you want to feel you alone can do it! Click if you want to feel confident and beastly! Click if you want courage to let go and move on! And click the message if you need someone to talk to -- I'll understand, even if we "hate" each other on here :hug: :sun:


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