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“When I first saw Rule 30 it came as a huge shock to my intuition, and in fact, to understand it, I eventually had to create a whole new kind of science. This science is more general than the mathematics based science that we have had for the past 300 years.”

Nature’s Secret: “Nature is just sampling what’s out there in the computational universe.”

“We find our physical universe in the computational universe.”

His TED Talk video just went online.

11 responses to “Wolfram Redux”

  1. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    Decent photo.
    I think I had the "game of life" running on my 8-bit C64 back in the 80s.

    Reply
  2. Jonathan Ruff Avatar
    Jonathan Ruff

    After reading his A New Kind of Science book, I came to really dislike the name. He really should have considered a better name to encompass his ideas. If you want to spread anything into the universe, it requires good marketing (and I don’t specifically mean the kind used to sell cereal or ipods).

    Reply
  3. AMagill Avatar
    AMagill

    Wolfram is clearly an unparalleled genius, but man, what an ego the guy has. His discussion of complexity in nature arising from simple rules reminds me of Alan Turing’s reaction-diffusion model for morphogenesis- basically just a cellular automata that describes the formation of nearly everything in biology, from leopard spots to cells and organs, all from the interaction of a handful of organic molecules. Here’s what I came up with when I briefly became obsessed with experimenting with it.

    Reply
  4. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    How many billions of universes got tried before the one we’re in was born? And how many exist in parallel outside ours? As many as there are stars…

    ps: is it really "computation" or more "random combinatorial"?

    Reply
  5. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    smiles^3

    Reply
  6. benjiman Avatar
    benjiman

    I digested New Kind of Science and while I’m in awe of the work involved… The Taoist part of me finds it a bit obvious.

    Math is Nature
    Nature is Math
    Trees up
    Trees down
    Everything implies
    Everything Else

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    strange loops of beauty,
    Ramen

    Reply
  8. j_silla Avatar
    j_silla

    🙂 Well you have soon all the quantum computing capacity. What if you gave the computer a shape and have it figure out the rule? Shape of a mouse DND for example. Then would it not be possible to have the computer grow from the equation the virtual mouse (or biological one) not just the dna?

    Reply
  9. paranoidroid Avatar
    paranoidroid

    i used to work for that guy!

    Reply
  10. I is Avatar
    I is

    I’ve heard it all before

    Reply
  11. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    I’ve studied now Philosophy
    And Jurisprudence, Medicine,
    And even, alas! Theology
    All through and through with ardour keen!
    Here now I stand, poor fool, and see
    I’m just as wise as formerly.
    Am called a Master, even Doctor too,
    And now I’ve nearly ten years through
    Pulled my students by their noses to and fro
    And up and down, across, about,
    And see there’s nothing we can know!
    That all but burns my heart right out.
    True, I am more clever than all the vain creatures,
    The Doctors and Masters, Writers and Preachers;
    No doubts plague me, nor scruples as well.
    I’m not afraid of devil or hell.
    To offset that, all joy is rent from me.
    I do not imagine I know aught that’s right;
    I do not imagine I could teach what might
    Convert and improve humanity.

    Reply

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