Adventures of a Computational Explorer by Stephen Wolfram (PDF)

Description

Through his pioneering work in science, technology and language design, Stephen Wolfram has developed his own signature way of thinking about an impressive range of subjects. In this lively book of essays, Wolfram takes the reader along on some of his most surprising and engaging intellectual adventures.From science consulting for a Hollywood movie, solving problems of AI ethics, hunting for the source of an unusual polyhedron, communicating with extraterrestrials, to finding the fundamental theory of physics and exploring the digits of pi, Adventures of a Computational Explorer captures the infectious energy and curiosity of one of the great pioneers of the computational world.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Firstly, I’ll readily acknowledge that Wolfram is wicked smart. He has real scientific credentials and accomplishments. I’ve used Mathematica for decades. I’ve even tooled around with the 99USD Wolfram Alpha iphone app (but only after the price was dropped to 99 cents) and found it useful.This book, however, seems an autofellating paean to how great he thinks he is. Any chapter you may care to read has a reference to his previous book “A New Kind of Science”, which he clearly seems to see as his opus magnum that “several physicists at a conference have read” (disclosure: I’m a mathematician whose read the book). He’ll mention frequently that he was consulted for some thing or another to do a thing which he (in essence) thinks is stupid but he’ll deign to comment on or think about in reply.Are there good ideas in the book? Um… I guess. It’s sometimes difficult to expurgate the self-aggrandizement to figure out what he’s trying to say beyond “Cellular automata come in, cellular automata go out; you can’t explain that”.I would recommend this book only to the very sycophantic, or to the very patient (for whom this will a much shorter book). To be honest, though, I think any of these would have been better off posted to a personal blog rather than a 30USD hardcover book.He writes competently enough. Some of the diagrams and pictures are related to the surrounding text while others are simply drawings presented as relevant without evidence or context. I’m almost certain it was typeset in Mathematica rather than LaTeX; the dogfood is fine and to be expected from him.I will freely admit that there were some articles I… I just couldn’t. I just could not even. Not because anything was too terribly difficult to understand as a layman, but I simply could not get through his ego.

⭐Here is a person who invented a computer language in order to solve various math and physics problems. Along with the path of life that he took, he slowly built great tools to help unlock the mysteries of the universe. A scientist of his caliber and drive and determination are probably as rare as an Enrico Fermi or a Mozart who is born to society. Everyone who reads this will appreciate his sense of self confidence , as well as his drive and determination to building something that started out as a symbolic integration software but grew into so much more.

⭐Wolfram is unquestionably a genius but the book is really just a series of disconnected blog posts. Since the posts were written in different years and each originally meant to be consumed as a stand-alone piece there ends up being significant repetition. Some editing create a consistent narrative would have gone a long way.Also, personally, I would prefer fewer references to his pet theory of computational irreducibility as it’s not really widely accepted.I believe all is this content is already available in exactly the same form on his blog.

⭐This book was mildly interesting and I did find some nuggets of interest, but overall, it was a disappointing read. I was expecting something a little more challenging. I did find one aspect that I did not know about, and that is the author brushed shoulders with other intellects, like the Google founders, while in grad school. Most of these intellectuals went on to start major tech companies.Overall, just a general read and I will most likely donate to a thrift store.

⭐Stephen Wolfram and his colleagues have allowed entire new classes of problems to be solved and visualized.Global satellite communication links can be solved for favorable frequencies, as they were at the 1999 to 2018 Ka band satellite conferences. Wolfram has also been valuable for communication links to hypersonic vehicles.

⭐I found this fascinating. But before I started reading it, I’d long considered Mathematica to be one of the top wonders of the world, so I came to this with that bias.

⭐I liked: very clear, good insightsI liked less: occasionally self promoting

⭐Good Introduction to a beginner

⭐I had bought this for a friend. He was pleased with it.I was pleased about the amazon services. Keep up the good job!

⭐I think Wolfram Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha are superb tools. So I expected a lot from this author and this book. I expected stories of how he had faced computation challenges and how he had approached those problems. Nothing like that. The book is a long collection of self-centerd uninteresting trivia (like what is my dayly routine like and how my deslk is arranged) told withourt any literary talent and lacking any insights on the intellectual challenges of computation (or anything else). Absolutely worthless.

⭐Some interesting background material on Mathematica but the author does not really teach anything, except for some pointers on how to operate a 800-person company remotely. The book is heavy on chest-pounding.

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