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Although he starts out the book with a rather good example of simulation (including its limitations) -- a computer-based football game -- Casti occasionally gets carried away with enthusiasm and loses sight of the essential (and crucial) differences between simulation and the Ding an sich. For example, he starts the section on Tierra with a dramatic assertion -- "January 4, 1990, a day to be remembered: the day when the first noncarbon-based life form came bubbling up out of the computing machine of Tom Ray, a naturalist from the University of Delaware." Of course, Casti is hardly the first or the last carbon-based life-form to suffer this confusion.
Would-Be Worlds is pleasantly readable, but often feels disjointed. The author obviously has an exceptionally broad range of interests, and bounds cheerfully from 12-tone music to planetary nebulae to ant colonies with nary a quiver. More depth and less breadth might have been a more rewarding strategy. Engineers and software developers looking for an overview of simulation will be disappointed in the degree of sophistication and insight that is presented here.
-- Ray Duncan
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale: No stars = unacceptable, 1 Star = marginal, 2 Stars = average, 3 Stars = above average, 4 Stars = exceptional.