This book of thoroughly engaging essays from one of today's most prodigious innovators provides a uniquely personal perspective on the lives and achievements of a selection of intriguing figures from the history of science and technology. Weaving together his immersive interest in people and history with insights gathered from his own experiences, Stephen Wolfram gives an ennobling look at some of the individuals whose ideas and creations have helped shape our world today. From his recollections about working with Richard Feynman to his insights about how Alan Turing's work has unleashed generations of innovation to the true role of Ada Lovelace in the history of computing, Wolfram takes the reader into the minds and lives of great thinkers and creators of the past few centuries and shows how great achievements can arise from dramatically different personalities and life trajectories. Contents: Preface Richard Feynman Kurt Gödel Alan Turing John von Neumann George Boole Ada Lovelace Gottfried Leibniz Benoit Mandelbrot Steve Jobs Marvin Minsky Russell Towle Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead Richard Crandall Srinivasa Ramanujan Solomon Golomb

Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People

Biographies & Memoirs

Stephen Wolfram

Professionals & Academics

Wolfram Media, Inc.

Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments illustrated by striking computer graphics Stephen Wolfram shows in this landmark book how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science, from the origins of apparent randomness in physical systems, to the development of complexity in biology, the ultimate scope and limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, the interplay between free will and determinism, and the character of intelligence in the universe.

A New Kind of Science

Science & Math

Research

NOW IN PAPERBACK--Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics Stephen Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science, from the origins of apparent randomness in physical systems, to the development of complexity in biology, the ultimate scope and limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, the interplay between free will and determinism, and the character of intelligence in the universe.

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

Through his pioneering work in science, technology and language design, Stephen Wolfram has developed his own signature way of thinking about an impressive range of subjects. In this lively book of essays, Wolfram takes the reader along on some of his most surprising and engaging intellectual adventures. From science consulting for a Hollywood movie, solving problems of AI ethics, hunting for the source of an unusual polyhedron, communicating with extraterrestrials, to finding the fundamental theory of physics and exploring the digits of pi, Adventures of a Computational Explorer captures the infectious energy and curiosity of one of the great pioneers of the computational world.

Adventures of a Computational Explorer

Released alongside the launch of the Wolfram Physics Project, this book provides a unique opportunity to learn about a historic initiative in science right as it is happening. The Wolfram Physics Project is a bold effort to use breakthrough new ideas and the latest in physics, mathematics and computation to find the fundamental theory of physics, often viewed as the ultimate goal in all of science. Written with Stephen Wolfram's characteristic expositional flair, the book includes both an accessible introduction to the project and its background, as well as core technical documents, and breathtaking visualisations that bring to life a dramatic new understanding of how our universe works.

A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics

Physics

Combinators have inspired ideas about computation ever since they were first invented in 1920, and in this innovative book, Stephen Wolfram provides a modern view of combinators and their significance. Informed by his work on the computational universe of possible programs and on computational language design, Wolfram explains new and existing ideas about combinators with unique clarity and stunning visualizations, as well as provides insights on their historical connections and the curious story of Moses schönfinkel, inventor of combinators. Though invented well before Turing machines, combinators have often been viewed as an inaccessibly abstract approach to computation. This book brings them to life as never before in a thought-provoking exposition of interest across mathematics and computer science, as well as to those concerned with the foundations of formal and computational thinking, and with the history of ideas. Book jacket.

Combinators: A Centennial View

Mathematics

When Stephen Wolfram's groundbreaking A New Kind of Science was published in 2002, its exploration and analysis of the computational universe of simple programs launched a scientific revolution. Twenty years later, the ideas and results of the book have found countless applications across science, technology and elsewhere―including the recent Wolfram Physics Project and its breakthrough in fundamental physics―and the book has indeed spawned what can only be described as a new kind of science. 
Here Wolfram reflects on the first two decades of A New Kind of Science, discussing some of the major implications that have emerged so far, as well as his far-reaching new thinking building on the conceptual framework developed in A New Kind of Science. Written in Wolfram's popular and accessible style, the book provides a window into one of the most vibrant intellectual developments of our time. 
Recognizing A New Kind of Science's significance not only in science but also in the arts, the book includes a gallery of pieces created over the past 20 years by artists inspired by the book. 
Also available as part of the A New Kind of Science 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxed Set.

Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science

Programming

Celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Stephen Wolfram's groundbreaking A New Kind of Science with the signed and numbered limited edition boxed set containing hardcover copies of A New Kind of Science (2002), A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics (2020) and the commemorative Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science (2022).In A New Kind of Science, Wolfram starts from a collection of simple computer experiments--illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics--and shows their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe.A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics launches the Wolfram Physics Project--a bold effort to find the fundamental theory of physics. It combines new ideas with the latest research in physics, mathematics and computation in the push to achieve this ultimate goal of science.In Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science, Wolfram reflects on the first two decades of A New Kind of Science, discussing some of the major implications that have emerged so far as well as his far-reaching new thinking building on the conceptual framework developed in the original 2002 book. The book also includes a gallery of pieces created over the past 20 years by artists inspired by A New Kind of Science.

A New Kind of Science 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxed Set

“What is mathematics?” is a question that has been debated since antiquity. This book presents a groundbreaking and surprising answer to the question—showing through the concept of the physicalization of metamathematics how both mathematics and physics as experienced by humans can be seen to emerge from the unique underlying computational structure of the recently formulated ruliad. Written with Stephen Wolfram's characteristic expositional flair and richly illustrated with remarkable algorithmic diagrams, the book takes the reader on an unprecedented intellectual journey to the center of some of the deepest questions about mathematics and its nature—and points the way to a new understanding of the foundations and future of mathematics, taking a major step beyond ideas from Plato, Kant, Hilbert, Gödel and others.\nContents 
Preface\nThe Physicalization of Metamathematics and Its Implications for the Foundations of Mathematics 
Mathematics and Physics Have the Same Foundations · The Underlying Structure of Mathematics and Physics · The Metamodeling of Axiomatic Mathematics · Some Simple Examples with Mathematical Interpretations · Metamathematical Space · The Issue of Generated Variables · Rules Applied to Rules · Accumulative Evolution · Accumulative String Systems · The Case of Hypergraphs · Proofs in Accumulative Systems · Beyond Substitution: Cosubstitution and Bisubstitution · Some First Metamathematical Phenomenology · Relations to Automated Theorem Proving · Axiom Systems of Present-Day Mathematics · The Model-Theoretic Perspective · Axiom Systems in the Wild · The Topology of Proof Space · Time, Timelessness and Entailment Fabrics · The Notion of Truth · What Can Human Mathematics Be Like? · Going below Axiomatic Mathematics · The Physicalized Laws of Mathematics · Uniformity and Motion in Metamathematical Space · Gravitational and Relativistic Effects in Metamathematics · Empirical Metamathematics · Invented or Discovered? How Mathematics Relates to Humans · What Axioms Can There Be for Human Mathematics? · Counting the Emes of Mathematics and Physics · Some Historical (and Philosophical) Background · Implications for the Future of Mathematics · Some Personal History: The Evolution of These Ideas · Notes & Thanks · Graphical Key · Glossary · Annotated Bibliography\nThe Concept of the Ruliad 
The Entangled Limit of Everything · Experiencing the Ruliad · Observers Like Us · Living in Rulial Space · The View from Mathematics · The View from Computation Theory · What's beyond the Ruliad? · Communicating across Rulial Space · So Is There a Fundamental Theory of Physics? · Alien Views of the Ruliad · Conceptual Implications of the Ruliad · Appendix: The Case of the "Multiplicad" · Thanks & Note\nThe Empirical Metamathematics of Euclid and Beyond 
Towards a Science of Metamathematics · The Most Famous Math Book in History · Basic Statistics of Euclid · The Interdependence of Theorems · The Graph of All Theorems · The Causal Graph Analogy · The Most Difficult Theorem in Euclid · The Most Popular Theorems in Euclid · What Really Depends on What? · The Machine Code of Euclid: All the Way Down to Axioms · Superaxioms, or What Are the Most Powerful Theorems? · Formalizing Euclid · All Possible Theorems · Math beyond Euclid · The Future of Empirical Metamathematics · Thanks · Note Added\nImplications for Mathematics and Its Foundations, Section 12.9 from A New Kind of Science (2002)\nIndex

Metamathematics: Foundations & Physicalization

Ever since it was first formulated a century and a half ago, the Second Law of thermodynamics (or "law of entropy increase") has had an air of mystery about it. Why is it true? Is it even always true? In this book, Stephen Wolfram builds on recent breakthroughs in the foundations of physics to finally provide a resolution to the mystery of the Second Law, elegantly showing how it emerges as a general feature of processes that can be described computationally as well as their interplay with our computational characteristics as observers. For Wolfram, the effort to understand the Second Law has been a 50-year quest, beginning when he was 12 years old. In the book, Wolfram tells the story of this quest as well as traces the whole remarkable history of the Second Law. Written with great clarity and richly illustrated with both striking modern diagrams and extensive historical material, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the foundations and origins of one of the most important and widely applied principles of modern science.\nContents: 
Preface\nComputational Foundations for the Second Law of Thermodynamics 
The Mystery of the Second Law · The Core Phenomenon of the Second Law · The Road from Ordinary Thermodynamics · Reversibility, Irreversibility and Equilibrium · Ergodicity and Global Behavior · How Random Does It Get? · The Concept of Entropy · Why the Second Law Works · Textbook Thermodynamics · Towards a Formal Proof of the Second Law · Maxwell's Demon and the Character of Observers · The Heat Death of the Universe · Traces of Initial Conditions · When the Second Law Works, and When It Doesn't · The Second Law and Order in the Universe · Class 4 and the Mechanoidal Phase · The Mechanoidal Phase and Bulk Molecular Biology · The Thermodynamics of Spacetime · Quantum Mechanics · The Future of the Second Law · Thanks & Notes\nA 50-Year Quest: My Personal Journey with the Second Law of Thermodynamics 
When I Was 12 Years Old... · Becoming a Physicist · Statistical Mechanics and Simple Programs · Computational Irreducibility and Rule 30 · Where Does Randomness Come From? · Hydrodynamics, and a Turbulent Tale · Getting to the Continuum · The Second Law in A New Kind of Science · The Physics Project—and the Second Law Again · Discovering Class 4 · The End of a 50-Year Journey · Appendix: The Backstory of the Book Cover That Started It All · Notes & Thanks\nHow Did We Get Here? The Tangled History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics 
The Basic Arc of the Story · What Is Heat? · Heat Engines and the Beginnings of Thermodynamics · The Second Law Is Formulated · The Concept of Entropy · The Kinetic Theory of Gases · "Deriving" the Second Law from Molecular Dynamics · The Concept of Ergodicity · But What about Reversibility? · The Recurrence Objection · Ensembles, and an Effort to Make Things Rigorous · Maxwell's Demon · What Happened to Those People? · Coarse Graining and the "Modern Formulation" · Radiant Heat, the Second Law and Quantum Mechanics · Are Molecules Real? Continuous Versus Discrete · The Twentieth Century · What the Textbooks Said: The Evolution of Certainty · So Where Does This Leave the Second Law? · Note\nAnnotated Bibliography\nEarlier Work 
Undecidability and Intractability in Theoretical Physics · Origins of Randomness in Physical Systems · Thermodynamics and Hydrodynamics with Cellular Automata · Cellular Automaton Fluids 1: Basic Theory\nExcerpts from A New Kind of Science\nIndex

The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

History & Philosophy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stephen Wolfram. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stephen Wolfram

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stephen Wolfram. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People

A New Kind of Science

A New Kind of Science

Adventures of a Computational Explorer

A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics

Combinators: A Centennial View

Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science

A New Kind of Science 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxed Set

Metamathematics: Foundations & Physicalization

The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics