4 ms·
I found this incredibly hard to read, due to Wolfram's constant need to self-aggrandize. The entire tone of the piece is, "I discovered this, then I discovered
by redthrowaway 11y ago
I found this incredibly hard to read, due to Wolfram's constant need to self-aggrandize. The entire tone of the piece is, "I discovered this, then I discovered that". In reality, most of his "revelations" were discussed by others long before he arrived on set.
- paulpauper 11y agoIt's written in the first person, and he's describing the findings. How else should he have written it?
- api 11y agoWolfram is known for this. He's clearly a bright fellow but he is not even close to being the only or the first person to work on stuff like cellular automata, computational theories of physics, or complexity. He did not invent everything he claims to have invented and while he does footnote he's definitely not drawing attention to any of the others in the area. It's tragic really. A New Kind of Science is full of brilliant ideas but the narcissism that drips from every page ruins it and probably prevents some of these ideas from getting the reception they deserve.
- codingbinary 11y agoThat is exactly the reason I stopped reading halfway through. I couldn't take any more of his narcissism.
- api 11y agoI heard once that the book originally lacked many footnotes and they were added later after an outcry from the scientific community. I don't know if that's true but I can believe it. Like I said the subject area is fascinating and merits a much warmer reception than this book got. Tragic.
- lobster_johnson 11y agoCorrect, the first edition didn't have the footnotes.
- probablyfiction 11y agoI really appreciated his tone. I'm incredibly fascinated by ideas like quantum physics and basic building blocks of the universe, but am often left behind when I read articles about them due to a lack of understanding of the core mathematics. His tone makes this complicated subject understandable.
- knughit 11y agoHe makes it feel understandable, but does it communicate anything meaningful?
- pierrec 11y agoThe article would certainly be less awkward and more interesting if he involved other people than just himself and Einstein. Even if he's exclusively describing the evolution of his own thought and linking to his own articles, each discovery and theoretical advancement would better be presented in terms of upstream research that brought it along and predated it, crediting others whenever possible. Science is a network, too!
- grkvlt 11y agoAgreed. Benoit Mandelbrot was the same; "When I discovered Fractals, which are a thing that I discovered, including the Mandelbrot Set, which is named after me, because I discovered it..." Wth some people it means I just stop listening to them, but I just ignore it here, since both Mandelbrot and Wolfram usually have interesting and insightful things to say as well.
- vixen99 11y agoRather like Ms. Elk on the subject on the Brontosaurus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAYDiPizDIs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAYDiPizDIs