>> Yeah, I've gotten it - it was my Christmas present last year ;-). Of course, it only took another year and a half before I actually got it. >
>"A New Kind Of Science" was announced as available the 'Summer of 2002", and was finally released for sale on May 14, 2002.
>You must know Wolfram personally, to receive a copy 6 months before its release.

Reread my message. It was a Christmas present (preordered) that I received a year and a half later (that is, just last week).

>
>
>Someone wrote the following comment on the Amazon site:
>"The basic idea that complexity can be obtained by very simple rules is not new. The idea that the Universe, in all its complexity, may be a result of very simple (computational) rules is not new. And looking at lots (and I mean *lots*) of fractal-like, cellular automata, game of life like, black and white pictures is no fun at all. The pictures tell you nothing. You need to understand the text to understand the pictures. But if you understand the text, you don't really need the pictures. (A few pictures would be o.k., but hundreds is not good.)
>I think the basic info in this book, the basic theme, could be written in under 100 pages. This is not a "how to" book. It doesn't tell you how to replace current math, physics, etc. with something new. It only suggests that it might be possible to do so by considering "it all" as computation and by finding/defining simple computable systems."
>

Wow. Someone actually read the entire book in the last two weeks. I'm impressed. I'll reserve that kind of critical judgement until I've read significantly more of the book.

I won't disagree, though, that Wolfram isn't shy about self-promotion.

There is also an interesting review by Ray Kurzweil (sp?) on his site. Sorry, I don't have the link handy. I know it just came up on www.slashdot.org recently.