I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review。 It's a nicely bound edition， full of full-color diagrams and printed on good quality paper。 I know it sounds silly when I compliment a book on its physical attributes， but if you're going to read a "sit up straight and pay attention" book， it's good to have visual and tactile positives to help keep you motivated。 Plus， for some odd reason， it smells good （I think this is the first time I've ever complimented a book on its smell）。 B I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review。 It's a nicely bound edition， full of full-color diagrams and printed on good quality paper。 I know it sounds silly when I compliment a book on its physical attributes， but if you're going to read a "sit up straight and pay attention" book， it's good to have visual and tactile positives to help keep you motivated。 Plus， for some odd reason， it smells good （I think this is the first time I've ever complimented a book on its smell）。 But now on to the contents。The topic of this book is not， in my opinion， combinators。 It's not even what the author was primarily thinking about （although he doubtless did spend a good amount of time on that）。 If combinators were the actual topic， we would have heard a lot more about Haskell Curry （who we do hear about very late in this book）， and a lot less about the actual topic of the book， which is a man named Moses Schönfinkel。 Wolfram has clearly developed a fascination with this individual， in much the same way that others have with Évariste Galois （who did important early work in mathematical group theory， and died in a duel at age 20）。 What we basically know about Moses Schönfinkel is that he was born in Russia， moved to Germany， published the first paper on combinators， moved back to Russia， and died （perhaps， but not for certain， after spending some time in an insane asylum）。The first half of the book appeared as if it was going to be something along the lines of Wolfram's earlier "A New Kind Of Science"， or "A Project To Find The Fundamental Theory of Physics"。 We are talking about some abstractions which I'll call "mathematical"， although perhaps they are better thought of as "computational"， and Wolfram is using the graphical abilities of his Wolfram language to make five bajillion graphical representations of them。 It's pretty cool， if you like the visuals， and are content to only sometimes understand what he's talking about。 I'm not saying he doesn't make sense， just that I am only sometimes able to follow what he's talking about in detail。 I have a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering （thesis topic: "The Uses Of Statistical Measures of Correlation in Artificial Neural Networks"）， I'm not a complete doofus （usually）， but I'll admit that some of the formulas did not mean much to me。 For example: "s[s][s[s][s[s[s]]][k]][k[s[s][s[s[s]]][k]]]"。 That's by no means the longest one， it's just the longest I was willing to type here。But， Wolfram doesn't actually expect or intend for the reader to parse the combinator expressions， no doubt he's just putting them there to give you the idea of how much complexity we're talking about。 It is， at times， rather like reading about chemistry by spelling out all of the atoms of each chemical compound， never saying "ethanol" but rather listing all the C's and H's involved。 But then， Wolfram is involved in a field with not nearly so much work done in it yet， so naming conventions have not been developed。 In any case， for the first quarter of the book I tried hard to keep up with what he was saying， but for the second quarter of the book I just read it and looked at the pretty pictures， without worrying too much if I had followed the details or not。Then， unexpectedly， we stop talking （as much） about combinators， and turn instead to the subject of Moses Schönfinkel。 Wolfram has done， it seems， a great deal of work to try to rescue him from the oblivion into which he had sunk， pulled down by a combination of war， anti-semitism， and the poverty which those two forces had pushed him into。 It seems likely that a great deal more work by Schönfinkel was burned after his death in Russia in 1942， probably for tinder during the winter。 Wolfram is persistent， however， and by combing through German and Russian records still available from the first half of the 20th century， he is able to piece together some of his life。To a certain extent， Schönfinkel was lost to the "Urkatastrophe"， that series of cascading catastrophes which was begun by World War 1。 But， in some ways， he was also simply born too early。 Combinators are an idea which cries out for computing to explore， and this was simply not available to Schönfinkel （or anyone else， during his lifetime）。 Like Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing and Haskell Curry， Schönfinkel was one of those thinkers whose lot it was to be born just barely too early for their greatest talents to be put to best use。 What if Shakespeare had been born before theater， or J。S。Bach before the invention of musical instruments？ No doubt they would have found other ways to put their talents to use， but perhaps Wolfram is aware （at some level， at least） that he is fortunate to have been born in an age when he is able to play the equivalent （for him） of J。S。Bach's church organ。 Schönfinkel never got the chance， but in this book， you can get a glimpse of the landscapes that existed in his mind， waiting for a chance to get out。 。。。more