A New Kind of Science: Second Anniversary
Date: May 14, 2004
From: Stephen Wolfram
Subject: NKS: Two Years Later
Today marks the second anniversary of the release of A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE.
And I'm very happy to be able to report that NKS is continuing to develop
extremely well.
A wonderful community is forming around the ideas of NKS. The pace of
research and applications is steadily
building---with an average of about one new paper now appearing every day. NKS classes
and courses are being taught. And several times each week we hear about an
ambitious new initiative based on NKS---in technology, or art, or business
or somewhere else.
We're trying to do our part to help. Earlier this year we released the
online version of
the complete book. We launched the NKS Forum. We just sponsored the second annual
conference: NKS 2004. And
we're working hard to make www.wolframscience.com the best possible
reference source and meeting place for the NKS community.
At the end of June, I'm looking forward to our second NKS
Summer School---where I hope we'll
educate another outstanding group of NKS pioneers. (We're still accepting applications this week.) And later this
year we'll be starting an R&D fellowship program at our new facility near
Boston.
It's been exciting to see everything that's been happening with NKS over the
past year. But it's now clearer than ever that this is just the beginning.
Much of what's being done so far on NKS has focused on specific models, and
specific conceptual conclusions. But ultimately the real power of NKS comes
from its core: the basic science of "pure NKS"---and its methodology of
systematically exploring and understanding what's out there in the
computational universe.
New methodologies generally spread slowly. But pure NKS is definitely
gaining momentum. And this year we'll be announcing a major initiative that
I think will be an important step in moving it forward.
Years from now, pure NKS will no doubt be a mature field like physics or
mathematics---with its own complete infrastructure for research, education
and applications. But for now it is still wide open, and full of terrific
opportunities for professionals, students and amateurs alike.
I hope you've been able to spend time on NKS. It's always great to hear
what people are doing with NKS, and I hope you'll let us know if you have
something to share.
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