cellular automata

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Sorry to butt in, but at the risk of being rude-
Wolfram is an interesting character- a boy
genius, a wunderkind, basking in the imprimatur
of such illuminati as Feynman, etc., but he's also
an arrogant, ego-maniacal fraud. But wait, I like
him. Not so much for his rediscovery of Von Neumann's
theory of cellular automata, which has been well
covered by many others prior to him, with
specific attention to the animate/inanimate
divide, e.g., Pattee:

http://ssie.binghamton.edu/pattee.htm

(Everyone of those papers is execellent, if
difficult, and quite relevant to M&D, and all
of Pynchon's work, which, contrary to previous
claims, is based primarily on a biological meta-
phor, rather than physics)

who covers Von Neumann with much more
class and a modicum of humility. But there
are many others, besides Pattee, whom the 
Wolf-man has ripped off, a whole A-Life, cellular
automata sub-culture.

But what I like about this maniac Wolfram is
his complete bypassing of the usual protocols 
and decorum for publication of a scientific work,
with it's attendent hierarchy and "peer" review
elite. Yes! And what's more, since the work is
in general circulation and published by his own
company, he bypasses the usual swarm of 
agents, publishers, marketing parasites, etc., etc. 
Yes, Yes!

On these bases alone, he is well deserving of 
consideration on the p-list.


In a message dated 7/26/02 7:34:13 AM, sam at zeppomusic.com writes:

<< I haven't finished NKoS yet, but I've already

experienced some pretty dizzying epiphanies which are

enough to convince me that, even if Stevie D. doesn't

have the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything,

he's definitely 'hot' as opposed to 'cold.' Know what I

mean?

 >>