NKS: Two Years Later

[Stephen Wolfram]

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
(http://www.wolframscience.com/reference/bibliography.html). 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
(http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline). We launched the NKS
Forum (http://forum.wolframscience.com). We just sponsored the
second annual conference: NKS 2004
(http://www.wolframscience.com/conference/2004). And we're
working hard to make http://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 (http://www.wolframscience.com/summerschool/2004)--where
I hope we'll educate another outstanding group of NKS pioneers.  
(We're still accepting applications this week at
http://www.wolframscience.com/summerschool/application.cgi).  
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.

-- Stephen Wolfram