The Stephen Wolfram Podcast Storytelling with Stephen Wolfram: Stories From My Life Part 5
Sep 22, 2025
Dive into fascinating anecdotes of Stephen Wolfram's life! Hear about his early decision to pursue physics and intriguing chats with Richard Feynman. Discover his adventures with intellectual property disputes at Caltech and lessons learned from startup culture. Explore his shift to complexity science, including cellular automata. Plus, uncover his experiences with consulting projects in oil simulations and the innovations at Bell Labs. It's a captivating blend of personal stories and scientific milestones!
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Meeting Werner Erhard With Feynman
- Stephen Wolfram recalls being invited with Richard Feynman to an Est event and sitting across the table from Werner Erhard.
- He and Feynman spent hours analyzing what made charismatic leaders effective.
Early Quantum Computing Conversations
- Early conversations with Richard Feynman introduced Wolfram to quantum computing and spin-chain based computation ideas.
- Those interactions seeded later work on measurement and quantum computing collaborations.
The Caltech IP Battle Over SMP
- Wolfram recounts the intellectual-property conflict at Caltech that echoed earlier incidents involving Arnold Beckman.
- The dispute grew into a year-long mess of committees and time-wasting around SMP and the company.
