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A New Kind of Science

2002-05-21 15:51:55+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

It took me nearly a week to get to Whyte's Booksmith[Wiki] to pick it up, but I got my copy of A New Kind of Science yesterday. It'll be a little while before I can crack it, to tide us over /. has a review which starts:

First things first - have I read this book? Hell, no, and if anybody else says THEY have in the next year, they're lying thru their teeth. This book is so dense that if Wolfram had added a single additional page, the whole thing would have imploded into a black hole. That's got to be the only reason he quit writing and finally went to press.

[ related topics: Books Invention and Design Whyte's Booksmith ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-05-21 18:48:05+00 by: John Anderson

anybody interested in getting together a mailing list or periodic chat group to work through this as a group? I'd like to read it, but I'm afraid without some sort of external "peer pressure" to keep going, I won't ever make the complete slog...

#Comment made: 2002-05-21 20:33:10+00 by: TC

<gulp> I've always thought Mathematica rocked. I read the preface and started reading the onine bits. The book seems to contain the potential of a RELIGIOUS TOME (the religion of science)...So of course I just sent my $45 to amazon. If the book does not contain good science then surely it contains a sham that would make L.Ron Hubbard green with envy.

#Comment made: 2002-05-22 16:10:22+00 by: Dan Lyke

I'd join a low volume email list or newsgroup on the topic. Dang it, I need to finish setting up INN so that we can host Flutterby newsgroups. Dinner tonight, scotch night tomorrow, maybe this weekend?

#Comment made: 2002-05-22 18:10:43+00 by: Diane Reese

I could use a motivator to start slogging through the thing, so keep me on any such list. We could come up with an adorable book reading club name: prize for the cleverest entry. (A loaf of Grandma Storch's Banana Walnut Bread sound decent? Trust me, it's good. And I think I could pack it for mailing.)

#Comment made: 2002-05-22 23:34:42+00 by: Dori

My book club's name is "Book Sluts: Women who will do anything for a good book." Top that one.