From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2002 - 12:58:59 MST
There are many interesting, simple dynamical systems you can simulate in
Mathematica
besides cellular automata. These include systems with continuous-variable
states, and
systems whose dynamics are not based on "neighborhoods." While CA's in
principle can
simulate any dynamical system, in practice these other non-CA systems may
give rise
to more simple illustrations of some dynamical phenomena.
It will be interesting to see what particular non-CA dynamical-system
classes he has
focused on, I agree!
ben
> Nonetheless, he does say in
> http://www.stephenwolfram.com/qanda/science.html that
> "A New Kind of Science certainly isn't all about cellular automata (they
> probably
> represent about 20 percent of the examples in the book), but A New Kind
> of Science
> does contain a fair amount of material that cellular automaton
> enthusiasts will find
> exciting." And later: "A New Kind of Science does include a summary of
> most of what
> I know about cellular automata -- though cellular automata aren't the
> focus of the
> book."
>
> I guess it'll be interesting to find out what the remaining 80% is.
>
> - Emil
>
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