|
 |
Articles about A New Kind of Science, by Stephen Wolfram:
"A Man Who Would Shake Up Science," by Edward Rothstein, New York Times, 11 May 2002;
"Stephen Wolfram propose de revisiter les lois de l'Univers," by Hervé
Morin, Le Monde, 14 May 2002;
"Is this man bigger than Newton and Darwin?," by Graham Farmelo, Daily Telegraph, 15 May 2002;
"What kind of science is this?," by Jim Giles, Nature, 16 May 2002;
"Das Universum als Programm," interview with Stephen Wolfram, and "Der Code des
grossen Ganzen," by Ulrich Kühne, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 21
May 2002;
"Science is a computer program," by John L. Casti, Nature, 23 May 2002;
"Great Minds, Great Ideas," by Steven Levy, Newsweek, 27 May 2002;
"The World According to Wolfram," by Brian Hayes. American Scientist,
July-August 2002;
"What's So New in a Newfangled Science?"
by George Johnson. New York
Times, June 16, 2002;
"Scientist's tome draws notice, critics," by Gareth Cook. Boston Globe,
19 June 2002;
"Life,
the Universe, and Everything," by Greg Huang. The Atlantic Online,
26 June 2002;
Columnist
John Allen Paulos Explores A New Kind of Science;
"The Book of Revelation," by Robert Matthews. New Scientist, 6 July 2002, pages
47-49.
These articles represent a sampling of the worldwide press coverage that greeted the publication in May 2002 of Stephen Wolfram's book A New Kind of Science. Except for the one in Nature, the articles are profiles of the tremendously confident Wolfram, who asserts that he has discovered a completely new kind of science. A passage from the Daily Telegraph article gives a flavor of the mixture of awe and skepticism that characterizes much of the reaction to Wolfram's book: "Here I am in a Boston restaurant with an accomplished physicist who matter-of-factly assures me that his new book will revolutionise science. Not just parts of science, but everything from the theory of evolution to the very nature of space and time. Industry will be different, too, he claims: `In 50 years' time, more new technology will be based on this new kind of science than on conventional science.'" In his review of the book, John Casti calls the book "fascinating, frustrating, and overwhelmingly hubristic," and asserts it cannot be ignored: "[I]t will force you to reconsider your notions of what constitutes the practice and content of science. Such a book appears only once every few decades."
--- Allyn Jackson
 |
Comments: Email Webmaster |
