Sequential Processing and the Development of Early Computers

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: What is some history of thermodynamics you found interesting while working on your new project? - What is the history of mathematical rigor? - What's the history of chocolate? What technology allowed the creation of chocolate candies to become so popular? - In the history of computer architecture and software, who are the most important pioneers of parallel processing? - Did you ever use Xanadu's network communication/hypertext publishing technology? - ​Can you discuss the history of GNU? - How much more prevalent will cloud computing become in the future, as the need for computational resources is exponentially increasing compared to the cost-speed of processors? - Can you talk about the history of the public's perception of its own scientific literacy? - I think it also changed with the advent of memes, which made the most important subcultures swim up more easily than less important ones. - Will we go back to science illiteracy?