Re: Is Stephen Wolfram (mathematica) delusional?

From: David C. Ullrich (ullrich_at_math.okstate.edu)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 06:25:00 -0500

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 21:07:42 +0000 (UTC), contact@otherlanguages.org
(mark griffith) wrote:

>.
>
>I don't know about delusional, but perhaps a bit pleased with
>himself, yes.
>
>The complexity/artificial-life claims puzzle me. Didn't von
>Neumann originate artificial life in the 50s, and isn't Conway's
>Game of Life (from the early 70s? late 60s?) still the most
>interesting starting point for a lot of that stuff. I recall
>reading about Conway's Life game in a late-70s biology book
>in 81, so I'm not sure where Wolfram got the idea he blazed
>this trail.

the idea of cellular automata is original with wolfram.
yes, many people did earlier work on things that look
to you and me like ca's, but the point is, um, sorry
i forgot what the crucial point is here. but i know
nobody had any thoughts on ca before wolfram. no way.

see, there -must- be a huge distinction we're missing
because otherwise he'd give credit to earlier workers.
[just like he credits the employee who actually
-proved- that result about one of those patterns...]

************************

David C. Ullrich

sorry about the inelegant formatting - typing
one-handed for a few weeks...

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Is Stephen Wolfram (mathematica) delusional?
    ... > (mark griffith) wrote: ... > the idea of cellular automata is original with wolfram. ... > because otherwise he'd give credit to earlier workers. ... If he discredits earlier workers, ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Is Stephen Wolfram (mathematica) delusional?
    ... mark griffith wrote: ... > Neumann originate artificial life in the 50s, ... well before Wolfram came on the scene. ... Robin Chapman, www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~rjc/rjc.html ...
    (sci.math)