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I'm a fan---I even own a copy of the gorgeous hardcover edition of A New Kind of Science. However, this should be understood in context: Wolfram has been claim
by ajarmst 5y ago
I'm a fan---I even own a copy of the gorgeous hardcover edition of A New Kind of Science. However, this should be understood in context: Wolfram has been claiming that this approach would generate revolutionary changes (a paradigm shift, to use Kuhn's now hackneyed phrase) to how we understand and approach the universe for at least three and a half decades. He's brilliant, and has made some very important contributions to complexity theory, chaos, theoretical comp sci, discrete mathematics, etc. He also has a Bobby Fischer-level awareness and focus on his own superiority, and whatever the exact opposite of debilitating impostor syndrome would be. Still, that's true of many people that I admire but would probably not enjoy having dinner with (Nicholas Taleb, I'm looking at you.) Probably best to take some of his claims with a grain of salt until he proves them (which is not entirely unlikely in Wolfram's case).
- okintheory 5y agoI'm not aware of any important contributions made by Stephen Wolfram to theoretical computer science. What are some examples?
- chriswarbo 5y agoThe most obvious would be small universal systems, although (a) the importance of that is subjective and (b) much of the credit goes to others (e.g. Matthew Cook for proving Rule 110, Alex Smith for the 2,3 Turing Machine)
- jessriedel 5y agoBut the critique I've heard is that, in fact, folks like Cook and Smith deserve the credit and Wolfram played more like a coordinating role.
- taliesinb 5y agoThe attention ecosystems of entertainment, science, computing seem to favor a model people who are good at self-promoting a particular "brand" of work that really represents the labor of a much larger group of people. This simplification is useful for a couple of reasons: it nurtures the ego of the brand-manager, which almost has to be outsize to play this role. It is a simple enough story for the public to understand, and efficiently creates a large "catchment area" for people to become interested in the brand. And the brand managers can sometimes be good coordinators.
- ajarmst 5y agoWolfram did speculate that 110 would be Turing complete, although others proved it. Particularly in the Maths, an insightful but as-yet unproved assertion can be at least as valuable as its proof (hence all the Mathematicians who are justifiably famous for a conjecture).
- ajarmst 5y agoI'd also suggest that cellular automata are now an important area of theoretical Comp Sci (and a number of related fields). Wolfram's contribution in that area compares quite favorably with the pioneering work by Von Neumann and Conway, providing a lot of the foundation for systematic study of those types of system.
- cbm-vic-20 5y agoHaving spoken with him briefly, this is the best description I've ever heard of him.
- leephillips 5y ago“exact opposite of debilitating impostor syndrome” is a nice phrase. But I don’t think that we should “take some of his claims with a grain of salt”. That implies reserving credit, which is appropriate if he is making claims about facts. In fact we should entirely discount his claims about how the universe works or the efficacy of his approach to physics until he can demonstrate that we should pay attention. The burden is entirely up to him, and the only yardstick is predictive power, of which his theories have zero.