It has been a pleasure and a privilege for me to discuss fundamental questions with Stephen over the years. In this foreword I want to indicate what I regard as some of the major contributions of A New Kind of Science (henceforth NKS).In my opinion, NKS is a milestone work that will be appreciated more and more with time. Now, ten years after its publication, some things already begin to stand out. First of all, Stephen's book is wonderfully unconventional. In an age in which there are too many papers lling in much needed gaps" (Stan Ulam's classic put-down), who can take the time from producing a constant stream of routine papers, one that is required by the funding agencies, to wrte a conventional book, let alone a magnum opus in the grand manner?Stephen's NKS is an example to us all, a beacon of high intellectual ambition shining through a fog of mediocrity and dispensable rudition. A New Kind of Science (henceforth NKS).In my opinion, NKS is a milestone work that will be appreciated more and more with time. Now, ten years after its publication, some things already begin to stand out. First of all, Stephen's book is wonderfully unconventional. In an age in which there are too many papers lling in much needed gaps" (Stan Ulam's classic put-down), who can take the time from producing a constant stream of routine papers, one that is required by the funding agencies, to wrte a conventional book, let alone a magnum opus in the grand manner?Stephen's NKS is an example to us all, a beacon of high intellectual ambition shining through a fog of mediocrity and dispensable rudition. magnum opus in the grand manner?Stephen's NKS is an example to us all, a beacon of high intellectual ambition shining through a fog of mediocrity and dispensable rudition.