Does not play well with others is a common conclusion. I have worked in several of the labs where Steve has worked. Under non-disclosure until the publication of Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, Cook nevertheless presented his proof at a Santa Fe Institute conference. In the 1990's Matthew Cook served as a research assistant to Stephen Wolfram, where among other things he was directed to develop a proof showing that the Rule 110 cellular automaton is Turing-complete. While some view the proof as the book's central contribution, it is notable that in the years between Cook's presentation and the book's final publication, no subsequent follow-on work was done by those who had seen or heard of the proof-likely because its significance was not clear outside of the intellectual structure for which it was developed. Rule 110 is an extremely simple system, and the fact that it is Turing-complete is remarkable. Subsequently, it was stricken from the published proceedings by court order. Yes Wolfram used a lot of work based on others (and he cites it all)
Another guy worth checking out who is affiliated with Wolfram is Eric Weisstein who has a great website and sells an encyclopedia for mathematics, which I also own and couldn't live without :) I've followed his works for at least 5 years now.
Even better, try to duplicate Mathematica and see how far you get.I'm not trying to start a flame or anythign like that, but unless you are really familar with this guy then you can't really comment. If you still don't believe me, read the book, or just go to his website and browse it. And after hearing him speak at one of his conferences in New York I have the upmost respect for him and his brilliance. He makes insights into the field that no one has ever mentioned before. Yes Wolfram used a lot of work based on others (and he cites it all), but he has also studied Cellular Automata for somewhere between 12 to 20 years.The guy is smart and I've read this entire book cover to cover and have referenced it several times. The reason the human race has progressed as such is because we learn from our predecessors and build on that knowledge. But before Einstein there was Max Planck. Quantum Mechanics is also commonly contributed to Albert Einstein who's work was then contributed to by others. Modern Physics was built off of Newton's work which was then in turn added to by others until it has reached its amazing point in this day and age where we can send a small robot to a crater on a planet millions of miles away. He did build some of his work off of other people's, but that is what science is. Wolfram is indeed a genius.He is up there with the likes of Stephen Hawking, just in a different field. By comparison, Wolfram is just a bored dilletante scribbling on the back of an envelope.Īnd you the mighty gowen have contributed so much to society.