About this title: In this clearly written and heavily illustrated text, Stephen Wolfram explains his theory of the universe--one which challenges the paradigm of contemporary science and asks readers, lay and academic, to see the world from a different perspective.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Very Good/No Jacket. No Jacket-believed as issued. Hardcover, very good condition, w. ltly rubbed brds--a few lt scratches, mostly on r. V. ltly slanted sp, v. ltly bumped corners, v. ltly warped fr brd. V. ltly tanned p. edges. Cln, tight, unmarked. Cln, tight, unmarked. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Very Good/Very Good. Hardcover, very good condition, w. ltly slanted sp, v. ltly bumped corners. V. lt dent on fr brd fr edge nr base. Remainder mark on p. tops. Clean, tight, unmarked. Dj very good, ltly rubbed, lt marks. Line through ISBN scan box on r. Sm tear at top r. In new mylar jacket. read more
Edition: Not Given
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media, Inc., Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 48mo-over 3"-4" tall. "This long-awaited work from one of the world's most respected scientists presents a seriesa of dramatice discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments-illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics-Stephen Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. " This book has 1197 pages and is profusely illustrated. read more
Edition: Third printing
Binding: Hardcover--illustrated boards.
Publisher: Wolfram Media,, Champaign, Illinois:
Date Published: 2002.
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Fine/Fine. Quarto, 10" tall, 1280 pages, illustrated boards. A fine, clean, neat, unread hard cover with minimal shelf wear; hinges and binding tight, paper white. In a fine dust jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc, US, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Very Good in Very Good jacket Text and illustrations clean and bright. Binding tight. Discoloration around the edge of the text. read more
Edition: First Edition; Second Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: 1579550088. Near Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket. Remainder. read more
Binding: Hardcover. Fourth Printing
Publisher: Wolfram Media
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 9781579550080. A little soil to bottom page ends, two corner bumps to covers. Dust jacket is a little rubbed, now protected by clear mylar sleeve. Pages are clean and crisp, the binding is tight and square; book appears unread. Huge and controversial book by a controversial author and creator of Mathematica. SIGNED AND DATED by Wolfram on first endpaper. 8vo-8" to 9" tall. 1280 pages. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Wolfram Media Inc., London
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781579550080ISBN:1579550088
Description: As New/Very Good. 1579550088 Clean Copy Pictorial dust jacket looks a little worn. New condition of cover and contents. Text tight and bright. Highly illustrated by tables, diagrams and graphs. read more
Description: Fine. 1579550088 *VALUE PRICED USED BOOK* Book may contain marking or highlights. Used items may not contain supplemental items such as CD, DVD, or other previously included items that would come with a NEW book. ALIBRIS. read more
"Although clearly the material is developed by a brilliant mind, the book is poorly written and edited. It reads as if it were self-published without benefit of more knowledgeable minds in the publishing industry. As such, it becomes a purely egocentric compilation of electronic manipulations. It fails to communicate important ideas through sheer repetitive hysterical boredom."
"Wolfram is proposing that cellular automata provide a robust set of structures with which any number of scientific theories can be modeled. That by itself is a fascinating exercise, even in the loose, hand-wavy style of this text. The book is a pleasure to read simply for its graphic presentation of cellular automata.
Wolfram provides an enormous compendium of structures with very little theory and absolutely no rigor. It would be a first rate book with 400-500 pages of examples swapped out for theorems and proofs, if any exist, regarding the structural properties of cellular automata. The mathematician in me is asking "where's the beef.""
"Wonderfully printed, easy to read, marvelous to look at, pretentious piece of quack.
It was hard to pass the Introduction and the first Chapter, when you hear the author praising himself, his own importance and why literally 'everybody' in science and why science itself is 'wrong' and did not 'see' what very self-aware author sees, but nobody else.
The book is a massive piece of rarely to find print. I was self-published by the author to assure the quality of the printing. It has many black-and-white Illustrations and pictures to accompany the text. The text, when it is not about self-praising, is rather easy to read and easy to understand for non-academics. So what is it about?
It talks about the 'big' picture in nature and science. Stephen Wolfram is a well known 'Wunderkind' in theoretical physics. He made his PhD in 1979 at the age of 20. In the mid-1980s he founded Wolfram Research Inc. and invented 'Mathematica' the leading software for technical computing and symbolic programming.
Wolframs main thesis of the book and the solution he offers are easy to understand:
"... very simple programs produce great complexity. For all it takes is that systems in nature operate like typical programs and then it follows that their behavior will often be complex. And the reason that such complexity is not usually seen in human artifacts is just that in building these we tend in effect to use programs that are specially chosen to give only behavior simple enough for us to be able to see that it will achieve the purposes we want" page 3
This is the crux of the book, there, luckily on page 3.
If you read the 12 Chapters (846 pages plus around 250 pages of notes and additional massive Index, than it is most likely, that you do it because you like an intellectual exercise or because you love books and don't mind the many times annoying voice.
I am not going to discuss the results of such a vast amount of research and work that went into proving and verifying his idea. There are plenty of scientists from his fellow theoretical physics to mathematicians and others that reviewed and challenged Wolfram's book over the past years. There is even a great discussion a the slashdot-forum that mocks the authors writing and is funny and hilarious to read for nerds like me. May reviews and articles are online and it is easy to find them, if you want to.
Beyond the Masters Voice, this is a lovely book to look at. An artifact in these times of trash-quality publishing. It is not a masterpiece of printing. You cannot compare it with bibliophile editions. But for science books, if you have seen a physical copy of it, it is more on the upside, which tells you where we are nowadays, when it comes to print.
There is a complete online-version of this book now available for free on the Wolfram Research Homepage. The whole thing. For the curious minds."
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