A new kind of review - inspired by Stephen Wolfram's book

I haven't read this book, but this other review was a great overview.

http://www.amazon.com/review/RUGSCP3XBNBUV/ref=cm_cr_rdp_per...

That was beautiful. It perfectly captured everything about the book that rubbed me the wrong way.

Clever satire! ANKoS is a worthwhile read full of great nuggets of interest. You could read the Notes as a standalone work. But it is not quite as important as Wolfram believes.

For an equally scathing but more contentful review, it's hard to beat Cosma Shalizi's at http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/wolfram/ -- I love the title: "A rare blend of monster raving egomania and utter batshit insanity".

What I find striking is the huge approval ('helpful' votes) that this (1-star) review and two other thoughtful pans (a 1- and a 3-star review) received on Amz.

For a 2002 book that still sells quite well in hardcover (coffee table book to impress geeky friends?), the huge overbalance of negative reviews is something this Amazon addict does not recall seeing:

5 star: (89)

4 star: (38)

3 star: (50)

2 star: (60)

1 star: (104)

Perhaps somewhere in all those I'll find someone who's culled the gems from it. "Hacker Readers Digest" where are you?

"It is staggering to contemplate that all the great works of literature can be derived from the letters I use in writing this review."

However the author of the review left out the letter "z". Thus none of the works of e.g. Zola can be properly derived ... or is that the review writer's intention?

Also see Ray Kurzweil's take on the book:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0464.html?printable=1

great, no words