Stephen Wolfram (of Mathematica fame) must have some amazing publicists. His new self-published book A New Kind Of Science has a wealth of examples of how simple computer programs can have complex outputs. Entertaining, but not a big deal.

The NY Times has already reviewed it 3 times in the last month. Here's the first. And today it has a fourth article about the book -- an interview with Wolfram about it.

Here are some more reviews. It is hard to take the book seriously when it has such an egotistical style, has so many wildly exaggerated claims, and has such a stubborn refusal to put his work in the context of the work of others. But I guess that's what you have to do to get 4 reviews in the NY Times.