New Kinds of Science

New technology and unconventional forms of computation can result in new kinds of science and in new universes as well. Computation has given us access to new models and metaphors, but it also opened up the "computational universe". Stephen Wolfram compares in one of his recent essays named [http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/recent/ultimateknowledge/ Some Modern Perspectives on the Quest for Ultimate Knowledge] the exploration of the physical world with the exploration of the "computational universe":

: "We have the whole computational universe to explore--with all possible rules. Including, for example, I believe, the rules for our physical universe. [..] over the course of time we have found ways to use a tremendous diversity, say, of possible materials that we can "mine" from the physical world. To find uses for magnetite, or amber, or liquid crystals, or rare earths, or radioactive materials, or whatever. Well, so it will be with the computational universe. [..] It will be interesting to watch the development of technology--as well as art and civilization in general--and to see how it explores the computational universe of possible programs. I'm sure it'll be not unlike the case of physical materials. There'll be techniques for mining, refining, combining. There'll be "gold rushes" as particular rich veins of programs are found."

Some of the gold nuggets have already been found: for example the classical algorithms in computer science for sorting and searching etc., the basic fractals, L-systems and of course cellular automata. In the area of distributed computing, we have discovered big signs saying "It is impossible to find any nuggets here" (for example the FLP theorem), which is quite disappointing.

== Wolfram's New Kind of Science ==

[http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html A New Kind of Science] is a book by Stephen Wolfram, published in 2002. It contains an empirical and systematic study of computational systems such as cellular automata. Wolfram calls these systems simple programs and argues that the scientific philosophy and methods appropriate for the study of simple programs are relevant to other fields of science.

* Wikipedia entry for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science A New Kind of Science]