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Wolfram's New Kind of Science Now Online

gotscheme writes "When Stephen Wolfram of Mathematica fame self-published A New Kind of Science in 2002, he raised the suspicions of many in scientific communities that he was taking advantage of a lot of other people's work for his sole financial gain and that he was going against the open nature of academia by using restrictive copyright. Yesterday, Wolfram and company released the entire contents of NKS for free on the Web (short registration required). Perhaps Wolfram is giving back to the scientific community; perhaps it is simply clever marketing for a framework that is beginning to gain momentum. For any matter, the entire encyclopedic volume is online, and this appears to be a positive step for scientific writing."

19 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. Perhaps by BeemanH2O · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Perhaps Wolfram is giving back to the scientific community; perhaps it is simply clever marketing for a framework that is beginning to gain momentum.

    Perhaps he's trying to make himself look like less of an asshole.

  2. New Kind of What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Prof. Eugene Wigner said it best in his evaluation of a Professor giving a talk at Princeton: "Well Sir that talk was certainly New and Interesting, however what was New is not Interesting and what was Interesting was not New." I think that certainly applies to this book.

  3. Don't get locked in! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I hear Wolfram's Science.NEW only runs on the English-language platform.

  4. Re:Meh... by after · · Score: 3, Funny
    I read the first chapter before my brain decided to fall asleep on me...
    Maybe one day I'll get to reading it, but there's just so much material in that book...

    That reminds me of the time that I cryed when trying to install Debian. I never thaught that computer can make a man cry.

    Maybe one day I'll get to install it without running away like a little girl.
  5. Unfortunately... by AndrewHowe · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's currently suffering A New Kind of Slashdotting.

  6. Re:I'm voting for clever marketing by chaoticset · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...as far as I can tell, you can't, say, download a pdf of a chapter; you pretty much have to go page by page...

    Just means that your spider is forced to go slowly. NBD. :)
    --

    -----------------------
    You are what you think.
  7. A rare blend indeed... by levell · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's the book that was described by one researcher as: "A rare blend of monster raving egomania and utter batshit insanity" which when I first read it made me laugh out loud. I haven't read the book so I don't know how accurate it is.

    --
    Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
  8. Yes by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Funny

    I often look to Anonymous Cowards for respected peer review.

    --
    Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  9. this guy ... by Glog · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... is a *humble* genius. Read it and weep (page 1, 1st chapter):

    For what I have found is that with the new kind of science I have developed it suddenly becomes possible to make progress on a remarkable range of fundamental issues that have never successfully been addressed by any of the exisiting sciences before.
  10. ohhh, WolfRAM... by mobiux · · Score: 2, Funny

    For a second I thought the wolfman was making a come back.

    Totally ready for the weekend.

  11. But do the senior partners approve? by Channard · · Score: 4, Funny

    And when can we expect the announcement of his new book, co-written with Viktor Hart, full time mad scientist and re-animator?

  12. In case of slashdotting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Isn't anyone going to post the whole text here?

  13. Re:I'm voting for clever marketing by kurosawdust · · Score: 4, Funny
    Also, you need Mathematica to run the programs.

    Yeah, that's much worse than the paper version, where the programs run themselves if you press the "Go" button on the page with your finger.

  14. Re:A New Kind of Science by rokzy · · Score: 2, Funny

    but Newton is famous for saying "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

    Wolfram is famous for saying "I've created A New Kind Of Science. You owe me $200,000."

  15. Re:New Kind of Hype? by kurosawdust · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's one gigantic goddamn envelope.

  16. Re:New Kind of Hype? by __past__ · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, it's weasels all the way down?

  17. If only I knew ahead of time.. by internetdarwin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Soooo, can anyone please tell me where the web form is to submit my book and get my $50 USD back? I cannot find it anywhere.

  18. Re:Or perhaps... by kindofblue · · Score: 2, Funny

    An intelligent designer surely exists. The iPod proves it, not the universe.

  19. Re:Or perhaps... by line.at.infinity · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and examples from the real world...

    Heh, reminds me of Good Will Hunting...