SD Reviews of A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

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Warren Tignor
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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:39 am

SD Reviews of A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

Post by Warren Tignor »

Philip,

I was fascinated by the subject matter of the book as well. I read about it
in Wired magazine, June 2002, p. 132, "The Man Who Cracked the Code to
Everything", by Steven Levy. For the field of simulation in general and SD
specifically, the concept of "principle of computational equivalence" has
huge implications. Does the principle mean that knowledge accumulation will
accelerate because simulated experimentation will replace or enhance the
discover new algorithms and explanations usually based on physical
experimentation?

I look forward to reading the book and seeing more comments on this
listserve.

Regards,

Dr. Warren W. Tignor PhD
Chief Architect
SAIC
410 865 2450
wtignor@ieee.org
"Peter Hollings"
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:39 am

SD Reviews of A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

Post by "Peter Hollings" »

Warren --

The article in Wired that you mention was indeed very good. Its strong
points were the personal background on Wolfram and the history of the
creation of the book. Here
(
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 10&tid=134) is
the best actual review of the contents that Ive seen to date. Although
the reviewer freely admits to not having read the book (nor have I), he
provides an interesting and credible synopsis. What I wonder, after all
the dust settles, is whether cellular automata can go beyond faithfully
replicating reality to explaining why? And, if they cant explain why,
can they still be useful for formulating policies?

Peter Hollings
From: "Peter Hollings" <phollings@attbi.com>
"Peter Hollings"
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:39 am

SD Reviews of A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

Post by "Peter Hollings" »

David Wimberly
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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:39 am

SD Reviews of A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

Post by David Wimberly »

Greetings to all:

As some may remember I replied to an email about
SD and electronic markets on December 2, 2001 in
which I indicated that a company known as Bios
Group, LP (
www.biosgroup.com) had extensively
modelled the NASDAQ market using Artificial Life
techniques. Among these techniques are Cellular
Automata, Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms,
and other Constrained Generating Procedures. (See
Emergence: From Chaos to Order by John H.
Holland, Addison-Wesley, 1998). "Agent-Based
Models" are used extensively to model complex
systems.

I agree that these techniques do not necessarily
fully capture reality but I believe they do make
great strides in modeling complex behavior, and
my suggestion is that in concert with SD,
techniques such as CA, GA, NN, and CGP can
greatly enhance our understanding of complex
systems and our ability to predict outcomes.

I have not read Wolframs book but plan to do so
in the near future. I would suggest further
reading in this area before drawing any
conclusions, especially John Holland, Stuart
Kauffman, and Chris Langton.

Have a nice day!!

David

Dr. David Wimberly
Chairman & CEO
SDGI
System Dynamics Group International
3832 Baymeadows Road # 354
Jacksonville, FL 32217-4690
904-891-8364
email SystemDynamics@ureach.com
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