The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

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: Continuing the dinosaur theme, is it possible biology can repeat patterns of evolution? Is it possible for dinosaur-like creatures to reappear? - Why is it as technology advances, it goes through phases of bigger to smaller to bigger? I've seen this with phones, computers, TVs, cars, etc. What does this say for the future of technology? - ​​What would be the future of the personal computing paradigm? Would we see more remote cloud-like computing and storage in the future, essentially making personal computing devices obsolete? - The current AI/LLM models aren't good at the mathematical and statistical computational methods. What areas do you think should be focused on in computer science and mathematics to teach these models to be better at computation and assist researchers and scientists? - What do you think of the amount of data that gets processed or code that is run in terms of bytes vs. bytes that are used for storage in the world? - What exactly is 5G? How is it different from 4G or 3G? - Nowadays, instead of getting higher resolution, we can get higher color range and frame rate. - If AI is being used for autonomous vehicles, then presumably technology could improve to the level where vehicles could "see around corners" by different vehicles communicating with each other, buildings, etc.–so the video stream is from multiple perspectives? - Taking the concept further, could vehicles on a motorway and those joining seamlessly interweave at high speeds safely and traffic be diverted automatically in real time to ensure that there are no blockages etc.? - Turns out that as computer displays get better, our sensor limitations turn out to be higher than we used to think. - I recall reading something saying that 5G and low-latency connectivity would be important for self-driving cars. That seems somewhat unlikely to be an important component of self-driving now. - What's the future of fiber optics? - In the future, will cell towers be more advanced to prevent dead zones?

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: How are new words adopted into language? Can anyone invent a new word, or are there certain processes? ​​ - Who discovered the dinosaurs? How has technology assisted with research?​​ - ​​Which ecosystem could accommodate woolly elephants?​​ - ​​Isn't it so strange that every kid has a passion for dinosaurs?​​ - A subset of dinosaurs evolved into birds.​​ - Aren't bees considered too fat to fly?​​ - How has our understanding of the asteroid impact theory evolved since its introduction in the 1980s?​​ - ​​If it were technically possible, would submarines be more efficient if they copied fish or aquatic mammals?​​ - In your background, I see minerals or corals. Do you like petrology?​​ - In popular culture, dinosaurs are often portrayed as solitary and aggressive creatures, akin to fierce monsters. However, scientific research suggests that many dinosaurs may have had complex social behaviors and interpersonal relationships. Could you share an example of a dinosaur whose social behavior has been discovered or hypothesized based on fossil evidence? How do these discoveries influence our perception of dinosaurs, and how they are portrayed in the media?​​ - What came first, the dinosaur or the egg?​​ - How much computational irreducibility exists in DNA engineering?​​ - ​​Do you know what the first written description of human handedness was? There are some depictions and artifacts, but when did we realize "some people are like this"? - ​Did Isaac Newton get the idea for the inverse square law of gravity from reading a book by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli?​​ - Are there good simulations of warm periods of the Earth?​​ - What would be the physics on Earth with such huge creatures like the dinosaurs? To grow that big, they would have to either have a lot of food or the gravity must have been weirder. - ​​Yeah, there's not enough logged data for that to be predicted accurately, IMO. When did they start keeping track of the average temperature, the ~1920s?​​ - ​​During the time of the dinosaurs, atmospheric oxygen levels were significantly higher, which contributed to the existence of very large insects.​​ - When a space shuttle reenters Earth's atmosphere, does it affect our protection from solar and cosmic radiation? Could this piercing of Earth's barrier impact the stability of the magnetosphere? Is it like a wound that closes gradually or immediately?​​

The last five years (since Stephen's last birthday livestream: https://youtu.be/2-aAi6QXsl0) have been his most productive yet. Join him as he celebrates by looking back at the last five years and looking forward to what's next. Watch the original livestream on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7Eqhd34ytoc

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: ​If you had to explain your "Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes" blog to middle-school students, how would you begin that discussion? - What is convergent evolution? - Different genotypes come to the same phenotype—did I remember that right? - Regarding your blog, ​​I think it might be interesting to run rules toward each other from opposite sides and adaptively evolve them for length. Cells that both rules would affect are won by the rule with more width. - ​Do you think life existed before it did on Earth? - What is the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems in biological evolution? - ​​About life: follow the water. - ​​Did microorganisms have teachers? Who was the Einstein of microorganisms? - If you put A LOT of laser in ONE spot, would that create matter?

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: Can you patent an algorithm? Machine learning models? - Will we need a new division of law for AI cases? What is the precedent? - ​​Can blockchain mitigate the AI "facts," or is it its own threat to communications and liberty? - ​​Can you rationalize a world where "free-to-use" AI services utilize licenses that allow free use, but then the operating company can capitalize on the content that they generate? - What is a good process for knowledge transfer from employee to employee? - If you had the chance to redo your life, would you choose differently in terms of what choices you made academically? - Have you written any books or do you have any thoughts on childhood education? Now that I have three kids at different stages, I find it challenging that the school curriculums are trying to make conforming students while lacking effort in individual talent discovery. What's your experience and how have you approached it? - Do you still check your emails regularly? I find it a distraction for productivity and originality due to the bombardment of emails, text and all of it. I see this as a potential area for AI to personalize, and it could be simple to make. What do you think? - Wolfram's writings are actually often a quite good read and have a unique humor. MUCH better than most papers that came out in the last 20 years. - ​​I want to do something that should be an internet-based business, and thermodynamics and its applications should be a central part of the business. Do you have any tips?

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: Have you used LLMs to analyze genetic language? - Will bacteria become more resistant/stronger against human bodies in the future? Or will humans become stronger? - Could you just build specialized cells from scratch using printed DNA? - Can machines replace organs? - Several years ago, I read about research into DNA being used as logic gates. Is this still an active area of research, or has it been dismissed as not useful? - To what extent do you think we'll attain some kind of universality regarding the reprogramming of live biological systems, on par with current software systems running on silicon substrates? - How can cellular automata and systems like John Conway's Game of Life provide insights into evolutionary dynamics? - Can artificial life simulations effectively replicate aspects of biological evolution in a controlled digital environment? - A baseline bacterium for which we fully understand the effect of every gene on its own and of all genes as a whole. - ​​Do you think gene regulatory networks function as "observers like us"? - ​​Might it be possible in the future where if there's a crime, we could put a DNA sequence into a computer and it would show a picture of that person. i.e. by simulating the evolution of the organism?

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: Are there exact matches or just similarities between complexity in nature (bio, evolution), society (political, religious) and technology?​​ - ​​How did the development of atomic theory by scientists such as Democritus, Dalton and Rutherford influence our understanding of discrete structures and the behavior of matter at the atomic level?​​ - How do historians know with certainty the identities of prominent historical figures? Could there have been more to the Socrates, Plato and Aristotle timeline?​​ - ​​Do the majority of historians of physics now have a favorable opinion of string theory?​​ - Is there any scientific reason "pure maths" concepts are picked up by physics much later?​​ - Do you find it our lack of human history odd, considering how long we have lived on this planet?​​ - With regards to notable people in history, humans seem to be completely obsessed with credit for their contributions—an interesting feature of the human ego. Taoist philosophy believes the Tao makes achievements and lays no claim to them.​​ - ​Can we reconstruct the lost works in history with AI scraping through contemporary reference scripts and searching for the influence lost writings had on known writings?​​ - That brings up the interesting point that there were likely MANY people "back there" who had amazing ideas that would have important applications today, but they didn't have the good fortune to be noticed and documented.​​ - How did the concept of zero originate and evolve in mathematical history?​​ - Do zero and infinity have the same origin?​​ - Interesting, but if I had three ducks and gave them all to you, surely the ancients must have had some concept of what that left me with?​​ - Speaking of string theory, what are for you the notable "dead-end paths" taken in the history of math/sci/tech?​​

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: Why use cloud computers if we could compute on the Moon? How could we get rid of the latency? - Would we consider artificially engineered protein-based organisms robots (or nanobots)? - Is it possible to design (sharpen) the brain by some kind of biological engineering? - How do you think Neuralink and similar tech will improve our lives? What would be the drawbacks? - Does the speed of the neuron influx limit the brain size? - ​​In the future, how likely is it that physicists will be able to detect individual gravitons? - What are the latest innovations in battery technology, especially concerning alternatives to lithium and cobalt in energy storage systems? - ​I'm curious on your thoughts on the hologram tech that's right around the corner...

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 do businesses adapt to changing technology? Are there existing strategies to combat roadblocks in development? - Is Wolfram Language much faster today than it was 35 years ago? - What has been the biggest or most notable technological advancement in your lifetime? - ​​How do you think about the "buy" vs. "build" dilemma–notably for one so opinionated and driven to have it one's way as yourself, as opposed to being more compromising? - How do you think about and handle competition, be it business or technological competition (say LLMs vs. the Wolfram Language symbolic approach)? - Do you think having middle management in high-tech companies hinders innovation? - ​​You just mentioned that someone can't build something that took 30 years to build. Do you think that will change with AI advancing enough to cut build timeframes by orders of magnitude? - ​​Speaking of that area, what innovation and business lessons can be learned from Thinking Machines and such failed ventures? - Do you agree that technology is brimming with ideas and resources, many of which are free? This shift has transformed business approaches, with today's opportunities primarily centered around services. - I appreciate your approach to making software easy to use. I've used Oracle, SAP and JD Edwards ERP software and so much of it is overly complicated. We were tethered to them for support. - Any advice on starting a career in tech with everything moving at such a fast pace? - I've read about your endeavors, from writing books at 13 to earning a PhD at 20. How did you manage such accomplishments and cultivate the imagination needed for complex topics?

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: Are there languages or logic systems we haven't yet discovered from the past?​​ - Can smart keyboards help with this process of language discovery?​​ - ​​Do you view mathematics as a subset of language, or the other way around?​​ - How did different languages come to develop? Will we slowly move toward a universal language?​​ - "Ona, also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America." Spoken by only one person.​​ - ​The distinction is the unique role of mathematics expressing and formalizing ideas in ways that transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries.​​ - Language came before humans, e.g. dolphins and whales; we just scaled it up and complexified it​. - Was Shakespeare's style unique to him? Would there have been a possibility for people to speak in a more poetic language?​​ - ​​I think language is closer to 1.5–dimensional, considering we have relative pronouns and other constructions that link up with previous statements, such that a 2D diagram of it can be made.​​ - ​​If I want to write a short statement, I prefer English. For a detailed style, I would prefer German... which is usually longer and not as nice to read as short English text.​ - Bulgarian is pronounced exactly as it is written. One of its quirks.​​ - If LLMs are hallucinating all the time and good ones are just hallucinating correctly/accurately most of the time, does that explain how Ramanujan might have arrived at his formulas without proofs?​​