The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

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The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions and innovations in science, technology and business. On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.

  1. History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 20, 2024)

    1 HR AGO

    History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 20, 2024)

    Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Can you tell us anything about the history of quantum mechanics? - What's the craziest historical debate between physicists about quantum theory? - Thoughts on extending Kirchhoff's blackbody experiments to astronomical bodies? - Was the Copenhagen interpretation a mistake, in regard to how paradoxical results were "glossed over"? - Can you tell us more about Schrödinger's cat? What is actually happening? - Aren't zero-point fluctuations an absolute reference frame and therefore a fatal blow to relativity? - Did Feynman's work on quantum electrodynamics completely change the game, or was it just building on others? - ​​What do you think about Wheeler's participatory universe idea? - You got to meet all these neat people Mr. W! It's nice to hear your stories about meeting them.

    1h 33m
  2. Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [November 15, 2024]

    6 DAYS AGO

    Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [November 15, 2024]

    Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: In class, we learned that light behaves like both a wave and a particle. How is that even possible? - My teacher said there's no "up" or "down" in space. Why is that, and how do astronauts navigate? - Is the universe as small as it is big? - When will we reach the physical computer chip size limit? I heard in two, three years. I also heard that quantum computer chips are still far away. Is this true? Can you elaborate on it? - How do you expect propagation of light in your model to work out? Will you get frequency-dependent propagation like in a normal elastic solid or independent propagation? - If light has no mass, how can gravity, like from a black hole, pull it in? Doesn't that break the rules?

    1h 21m
  3. Business, Innovation and Managing Life (November 13, 2024)

    6 DAYS AGO

    Business, Innovation and Managing Life (November 13, 2024)

    Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qa Questions include: How long should someone expect to wait before a new business becomes profitable? - In your personal/professional journey, what are the important things that you learned the hard way? - ​​Can you elaborate on some of the unique talents within your team? Perhaps extremely smart or methodical/disciplined people? - Can you tell us about any exciting projects you're working on right now? - What do you think about self-driving? Do you think Tesla's approach without LIDAR has legs or do you think the Google Waymo hardware-intense approach is more promising? - Any tips for building a strong customer base from scratch? - What's the best way to figure out pricing for a new product or service? - With your work on Wolfram|Alpha and other projects, you've brought complex computational abilities to the general public in accessible ways. What were some of the challenges in making such powerful tools user friendly, and how do you think accessibility to high-level technology will shape industries in the future? - If the CEO himself heavily uses the product, you know it's something special. - Stephen, how do you personally define innovation? What makes something truly innovative instead of just a small improvement? - How important are critiques? Which do you find more valuable: positive or negative feedback? - I like real feedback. Pick it apart—that helps in fixing problems/strengthen whatever it is. - I've been rewatching the first hour of your interview with Yudkowsky since yesterday... do you enjoy those types of interactions often? - How do you balance maintaining the integrity of your original idea while incorporating customer feedback, which is often influenced by their familiarity with previous, incomparable solutions? - Do you have a favorite interview/podcast/speech that you've done? Or one that you were most proud of? - Are you aware that with the weekly livestreams, you basically invented THE PERFECT brain workout? - Is there a topic or question you wish more podcast hosts would ask you about that they often overlook? - What is something surprising people may not know about your "day job"? - You have frequently written about your vast digital archive. What tool do you use for indexing and searching? What other tools have you used or considered in the past and what is your opinion about them? With the improving LLMs and RAG, how do you think searching and indexing will change?

    1h 12m
  4. Future of Science and Technology Q&A (November 8, 2024)

    14 NOV

    Future of Science and Technology Q&A (November 8, 2024)

    Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the future of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Do you think AI will ever actually "understand" things like humans do? - Do you think we'll ever understand everything about the universe, or will there always be mysteries? - ​​If there are aliens, they probably have AI, right? - ​​Do you think that the aging process is something "programmed" the same way as the developmental process, or we just have wear and tear more like a car, or something else? - I'm a big fan of the game Cyberpunk 2077, which revolves around the idea of futuristic technology and digital consciousness. Do you think humans being able to digitize their mind or soul would be beneficial to our progression? - Recently, in my job, I've been processing semi-corrupt data from 50-year-old magnetic tape, and we're having to decide on the best way to handle the various types of corruption. What are your thoughts on the present and future of information/data storage and preservation given the sheer volume and the "humidity and mold" that threaten modern digital storage? - If parts of the brain are removed in stages (rather than all at once) and the digital implants are properly synced with the remaining brain parts between each stage, wouldn't this solve the "is it me or not me" problem? - Questions about preservation of things. ​​- I wonder how hungry you would be after waking up after being frozen for 500 years. - Do we know if all human thinking works the same way?

    1h 3m
  5. History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 6, 2024)

    12 NOV

    History of Science & Technology Q&A (November 6, 2024)

    Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: Were there any ancient travel bloggers (or the ancient equivalent) who wrote about other places they visited? - Did ancient civilizations like Rome or Egypt actually communicate with each other? - How did they know about each other? - How influential was Babylonian science on Greek natural philosophy? - How did people know how to tell time before clocks? - Did scientists back in the day have rivals or "frenemies" like we see in movies?​​ Did ancient people have the equivalent of church bells to mark the time in cities? - Were there any ancient or medieval "tech hacks" that we'd still find useful today? - Why do you think the ancient Greeks had a fondness for abstract levels of thought? - Is there an aspect of culture that enables this? - How did people figure out that the Earth is round?

    44 min
  6. Stephen Wolfram Readings: On the Nature of Time

    7 NOV

    Stephen Wolfram Readings: On the Nature of Time

    Stephen reads a recent blog from https://writings.stephenwolfram.com and then answers questions live from his viewers. Read the blog along with Stephen: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2024/10/on-the-nature-of-time/ Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uMyx3h-J-QU

    1h 10m
  7. Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [November 1, 2024]

    6 NOV

    Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [November 1, 2024]

    Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: As a computer scientist and now physics student, I would love to ask you what makes you think that our universe is an automata, and how does it run if the medium is itself? - Does the universe have a halting probability or the ruliad? - Aren't we just describing our perception of the universe instead of the actual universe? - What would Kant say about the ruliad? - What is your view on atoms being able of cognition and self-awareness in the human brain by just assembling themselves? - The ruliad contains its own encoding function and it is instantiated. The simpler the function, the better. - Can we look at free will as probability distributions in the ruliad? What happens in the ruliad during overlap of two free wills? - What "runs" the ruliad? Computers run computer programs. Mathematicians do thinking and write on paper to prove theories. In every case I can think of, for information to be "processed," there has to be some sort of processor intelligence doing the work. What is it the equivalent for the ruliad? If there isn't an intelligence running it, why does it follow rules? - ​​What if the observer is a computational system? - Maybe each species of observer conflates all their threads into a different identity mapping of the ruliad. Each species' encoding function is a distinct identity mapping, speciation's blueprint. - Perhaps we should replace school grades with "extent to which you have captured the ruliad." - Could you explain what infinity is?

    1h 18m
  8. Business, Innovation and Managing Life (October 23, 2024)

    29 OCT

    Business, Innovation and Managing Life (October 23, 2024)

    Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qa Questions include: What are your top picks for "startup ideas for Mathematica users"? - What's the future looking like for entrepreneurial business ventures and technology ones in particular, given what's happening with tools, capital, etc.? More solopreneurs? More big VC? Neither? - In business, do you think it is better to try and start a business with a totally new idea that hasn't been done before or to reinvent an old idea your way? - How do you advise young people with a similar all-consuming, intrinsic compulsion as yours, be it in their quest for knowledge/understanding or otherwise, and going about their careers/lives? - If you're debating the efficiency of algorithm design with your team, how do you navigate conflicting feedback? - Do you have an innately good memory or do you use memory tricks? - Did you ever play an instrument? - How do you develop speed reading and improve memory for a student or anyone who wishes to be better off intellectually? - What financial advice would you offer to someone developing a new business idea with limited capital? - ​​When you run a business that provides a web service to international users, are you bound to comply with the laws of all countries from where the service is accessed? - Learning to ask better questions seems to be arguably more relevant than ever before. How do you learn to ask better questions?

    1h 11m
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About

Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions and innovations in science, technology and business. On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.

Information

  • Creator
    Wolfram Research
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2024
  • Episodes
    439
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Wolfram Research

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