The Stephen Wolfram Podcast What We've Learned from NKS 20 Years Later: The Making and Current State of NKS [Part 3]
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Sep 29, 2023 The speaker reflects on a lost epilogue from 'A New Kind of Science'. They discuss the role of professional vs amateur science and the potential of studying systems based on simple rules. They also talk about their progress in working through unfinished chapters and archival materials. The online version of the NKS book is discussed, as well as the impact of cellular automata and the fourth paradigm. The emergence of computational language and its impact on ideas is explored. The next step in physics is discussed, along with changing paradigms and geographic distribution. The chapter ends with reflections on design choices and future breakthroughs in science.
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Principles for Doing Science
- Focus on the most obvious questions and simplest examples, not obscure academic ones.
- Understand root causes, not just technical explanations; avoid unnecessary complexity.
Computational Irreducibility as a Key Discovery
- Wolfram realized that the difficulty in applying traditional methods to cellular automata wasn't a failure, but a key discovery.
- This "barrier" is computational irreducibility, a core concept of NKS.
The Limits of Predictability
- Computational irreducibility challenges the traditional scientific notion of predictability.
- It suggests that we should be more humble about our ability to understand the world through reductionism.