Purpose of My Notes on A New Kind of Science

By Xah Lee. Date: .

I've read KNOS chapters 1 to 6, about 3 times in different years, during 2002 to 2007, and scanned or skim'd other parts of the book. (Wolfram himself sent me a copy in about 2005, but i actually bought it in 2002, the year it was published.) I'm currently making another pass to write this notes.

Chapters 1 to 6 contains the bulk of technical info of the book that are mathematical. (and subsections in chapter 12: “implications for mathematics and its foundations”. Also, much of the General Notes section (p849 to) contains significant amount of math, perhaps not new but can serve as a book of its own as one person's high-level survey of history of math and some science.)

The exploration of simple systems is interesting in at least as a subject of recreational mathematics. In particular, systematic approach is noteworthy. However, after a while, one forgot what systems the book actually explored. Rereading the book is problematic because it is too bloated. So, part of the purpose of this note is to summarize the significant info in the book. Also, it is my habit to write notes when learning.