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Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science

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Attention conservation notice: Once, I was one of the authors of a paper on cellular automata. Lawyers for Wolfram Research Inc. threatened to sue me, my co-authors and our employer, because one of our citations referred to a certain mathematical proof, and they claimed the existence of this proof was a trade secret of Wolfram Research. I am sorry to say that our employer knuckled under, and so did we, and we replaced that version of the paper with another, without the offending citation. I think my judgments on Wolfram and his works are accurate, but they're not disinterested. With that out of the way: it is my considered, professional opinion that A New Kind of Science shows that Wolfram has become a crank in the classic mold, which is a shame, since he's a really bright man, and once upon a time did some good math, even if he has always been arrogant. As is well-known (if only from his own publicity), Wolfram was a child prodigy in mathematics, who got his Ph.D. in theoretical physi

The Bactra Review: Occasional and eclectic book reviews by Cosma Shalizi 132 Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram Wolfram Media, 2002 A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity Attention conservation notice : Once, I was one of the authors of a paper on cellular automata . Lawyers for Wolfram Research Inc. threatened to sue me, my co-authors and our employer, because one of our citations referred to a certain mathematical proof, and they claimed the existence of this proof was a trade secret of Wolfram Research. I am sorry to s

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