In defence of Stephen Wolfram

You like Stephen Wolfram, right?

I mean, if he’s to be believed, he has reinvented physics, not to mention philosophy.

How could you not like such a thinker?

Well... it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t like Stephen Wolfram... or his physics... or his philosophy.

Here are four criticisms of Stephen Wolfram I regularly hear...

...and here’s why these criticisms, though they hint at uncomfortable truths, nonetheless miss the mark.

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Stephen Wolfram:

• Stephen Wolfram
• Stephen Wolfram’s web site
• Timeline
• TED talks
• List of podcast appearances
• List of video appearances

Stephen Wolfram’s claims:

• He has a path to the fundamental theory of physics
• He has an answer to the question: what is an observer?
• He has an answer to the question: what is consciousness?
• He has an answer to the question: why does the universe exist?
• He seems surprised at how little discussion there has been of his answer to the question: why does the universe exist?

Some of the things Stephen Wolfram created:

• 1987 Wolfram Research
• 1988 Mathematica
• 2009 Wolfram Alpha
• 2014 Wolfram Language
• 2020 Wolfram Physics

Other people involved in the Wolfram Physics Project:

• Jonathan Gorard
• Max Piskunov

Other people mentioned in this episode:

• Freeman Dyson – quote
• Sean Carroll – quote – Mindscape podcast – episode #155 with Stephen Wolfram
• Katie Mack – quote
• Adam Mastroianni – The rise and fall of peer review
• Father Strickland – quote

Brilliant people of the past:

• Leonardo da Vinci
• Gregor Mendel
• Nikola Tesla
• Aristotle
• Galileo Galilei
• Isaac Newton
• Albert Einstein
• Max Born
• Paul Dirac
• Werner Heisenberg
• Erwin Schrödinger
• Wolfgang Pauli

Other episodes of The Last Theory mentioned:

• Why has there been no progress in physics since 1973? – article ⋅ podcast ⋅ video
• Peer review is suffocating science – article ⋅ podcast ⋅ video

Reference:

• Wolfram Research now has over 800 employees

Images:

• Freeman Dyson 2005 by ioerror licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

The full article is here.

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