Stephen Wolfram is a little bit full of himself; this book is not nearly as revolutionary or paradigm-shattering as he seems to think. Nonetheless, this is a fascinating (if very long) book containing all sorts of interesting ideas about automata, recursion, programming, and more. ( )

A mind-blowing book of incredible density. A completely new way to think about the world and how science describes it and how it works.

What can be said? I was in awe of this book before I even opened the cover; it is huge, and self-published. Ah, but what glorious, middle-finger-in-your-face insouciance to the scientific mainstream! ( )

A hard read, for all but the most dedicated. A controversial subject, the use of computer modeling to explore scientific concepts, as a replacement for the (conventional) scientific method.

Wolfram has turned into such a crank that I can't even bear to finish reading his book. Given the conspicuous absence of proper citations, the admittedly pretty pictures are the only reason to buy the book at all. ( )