----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: NKS 2006 Wolfram Science Conference
The bottom line is that the overwhelming complexity of the manifest
universe
is arguably the result of the operation of something as simple as cellular
automata, and that we have no hope of discovering the nature of that seed.
Mike Carrell
How's that? Prove it. Do we all give up and go home? Sounds like
post-modern
science.
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As I said, there is no substitiute for tackling Wolfram's book. There just
isn't. The argument is advanced by the hundreds of illustarions of the
operation of the cellular automata. This does not fit into any existing tidy
boxes except deterministic chaos theory, which is not tidy.
As for not being able to discover the seed, consider the Mandelbrot Set. The
operation of the generating equation produces a mathematical "object" of
extreme complexity. However, examining the object will not disclose the
equation which generated it. The Mandelbrot Set and Wolfram's cellular
automata have the common feature that the generating operations are
non-linear and recursive. A seminal book on the consequences of this is
"Godel Escher Bach".
A remarkable feature of Wolfram's thesis is that the product of the the
cellular automata can be some order as found in our scientific exploration
of natural phenomena.
I'm not sure what the term "post modern" means, especially when applied to
science. Certainly Wolfram's work is a new bemchmark among many other
current studies of deterministic chaos and cellular automata.
Mike Carrell
