New Kinds of Science

'''Science''' is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Traditionally we use mathematics to explain the physical world, which means theorems, equations, formulas and calculation. So there is a physical universe, and a mathematical universe, and both can be connected in a meaningful way with each other. Each science has its "own universe" which it tries to describe:

 

 

While the natural sciences consider worlds made by atoms, the humanities, esp. linguistics and philosophy, consider worlds made by words. Psychology is an interesting case somewhere in between culture and nature.

New technology can result in new kinds of models and [[Metaphor|metaphors]]. During the course of time, the universe has been is compared with a giant clock, a giant machine, a giant computer..

A coherent theory of computation for "distributed systems" - or something like the principles of distributed computing - is still missing. Traditional computation is associated with calculation: arithmetic functions, serial algorithms, detailed instructions, and sequential operations. Computation in distributed systems such as [[Cellular Automata]] and Agent-Based Systems, where [[Iteration|iteration]] meets interaction, is much more complex. A theory, set of [[Theorem|theorem]]s or "calculus" for these systems would be desirable, something beyond the [[Ashby_Theorems|Ashby Theorems]]. It is unclear what can be computed at all

what forms and types exist in general (have we found already the basic types?), and how they are connected.

The [http://atlas.wolfram.com/ Wolfram Atlas of Simple Programs] is certainly a first step to explore the computational universe. One of Stephen Wolfram's claims in his controversial book "A New Kind of Science" is that the nature of computation must be explored experimentally.