New Kinds of Science

New 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, but it also opened up the "computational universe". Stephen Wolfram compares in one of his recent essays named 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."

Wolfram's New Kind of Science

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 A New Kind of Science